The new Far East

>

uj

x

THE

NEW FAR EAST

BY

ARTHUR DIOSY

CHAIRMAN OF COUNCIL OF THE JAPAN SOCIETY, LONDON

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS FROM SPECIAL DESIGNS

By KUBOTA Beisen, of Tokio

A Reproduction of a CARTOON designed by H.M. the GERMAN EMPEROR,
and a specially -drawn MAP

ffourtb Efcftfon

CASSELL AND COMPANY, LIMITED

LONDON, PARIS, NEW YORK & MELBOURNE. MCM1V

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

First Edition November ig8.

Second Edition July 1900. Third Edition 1900.

Fourth Edition March 1904.

TO

THE MEMORY OF
MY FATHER

PREFACE

TO THE FOURTH EDITION,

THE intense interest aroused by the outbreak of the war between
Japan and Russia has caused an immediate demand for a fourth
edition of this book. It has been thought advisable to re-issue
it absolutely without alteration and I venture to think that these
pages, written in 1898, will rather gain in interest when read
by the light of the stirring events which have occurred since
that year.

To what I have written in the Preface to the Second
Edition (to be found in the next few pages) I have nothing
to add, save to call attention to the three great historical
changes that have since come about :

THE ALLIANCE OF BRITAIN AND JAPAN, whereby British
policy in the Far East has, at last, entered on the
" Clear Course " which I have so long strenuously
advocated, and which is treated of in Chapter X.
THE WAR BETWEEN RUSSIA AND JAPAN, the inevitable
struggle for preponderance in the Far East, and
Japan's immediate exposure of the hollowness of
Muscovite bluff.

The unmistakable symptoms of the gradual AWAKENING OF
CHINA under Japanese impulse, the Chinese turning, in
their extremity, more and more towards their late foes,
whose just and humane conduct in the repression of the
"Boxer" outbreak of 1900 so deeply impressed the
Celestial mind.

ARTHUR DIOSY.

LONDON, March, 1904.

PREFACE

TO THE SECOND EDITION.

THE events now convulsing the Chinese Empire, and threat-
ening the peace not only of the Far East but of the whole
world, are the inevitable outcome of the conditions it was my
object to describe in the following pages.

I have discussed the various chapters of this book, last sum-
mer, in the Far East with the statesmen who guide the policy
of New Japan, and with Chinese and Koreans representative of
the spirit that animates their nations, with Mandarins of the
typical, ultra-conservative sort, with leaders of the lamentably
small Chinese Reform Party, with chiefs of Chinese Secret
Societies, and with Korean Princes and exiles, banished for
their reforming tendencies and I find no necessity for altering
a single statement.

The reader, bearing in mind that the book was written in
1898, will be able to judge, by the light of recent portentous
developments, the accuracy of my views on the forces at work
in Eastern Asia. I have no desire to assume an attitude or
" I told you so ! " I simply invite a comparison of my state-
ment of the position of the different Powers interested as it
was in 1898, of their aims, their methods and their relative
strength, with the situation at the present moment, which is
the logical development of the causes I have striven to
indicate and to explain. Nothing has occurred within the
last two years to change the aspirations of the nations of
Eastern Asia and of the Occidental Powers in contact with
them. The nations have proceeded along the lines marked
out for them by the spirit animating their policies. Nothing
has taken place but what the nature of those various policies
rendered inevitable. Russia's power in the Far East has
increased apace Manchuria is in her iron grip, the great Trans-
Siberian Railway is approaching completion, and in Korea she
is steadily pushing her way once more to the position of influ-
ence she had abandoned when more important matters demanded
her undivided attention elsewhere and made it unadvisable for

viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

her to risk a conflict, at that time, with Japan. France has
continued to give her dear "friend and ally," Russia, her valu-
able and energetic support in her Far Eastern policy. Germany
has firmly established herself at Kiao-chau, and claims to be con-
sidered as a factor of prime importance in the politics of Eastern
Asia. The United States of America make a similar claim, based
chiefly on their prickly possession of the Philippine Islands.
Italy, still smarting from the snub administered to her by China
when she sought a " Sphere of Influence" in Che-kiang, takes
a lively and active interest in the great drama on which the
curtain has just been raised. Britain has improved her strategical
position by her possession of Wei-hai-wei (pronounced u Way-
high-way") an occupation I was the first publicly to forecast,
as far back as 3Oth December, 1897, as mentioned on p. 309
and of the Hinterland, or, as I prefer to call it (why use the
German term ?), the " backland " of Kow-loon, or Kau-lung,
opposite Hong-kong.

The latter increase of territory was rendered absolutely
necessary in order to protect our great and flourishing sea-
port from the fire of modern long-range guns. Wei-hai-wei
might, with considerable expenditure and the application of
some of the energy shown by the Germans at Kiao-chau, have
been made once more into a formidable place of arms. As
it is, the most notable sign of British occupation was, a
year after the hoisting of the flag, a well-situated cricket-
pitch. Certainly, some surveys have been made and a Report
has been ordered on the works and armaments necessary in
order to restore the powerful stronghold destroyed by the Japan-
ese, but, at the present rate of progress, war will probably be
conducted by means of navigable balloons by the time the
fortress has been rebuilt and re-armed. Something important
has, however, been done at Wei-hai-wei ; a native regiment,
" Her Majesty's First Chinese," has been raised from amongst
the sturdy villagers, and has been trained, with apparently
excellent results, by British officers and drill-sergeants, forming
a force well adapted for police duties and for operations against
Chinese, but probably incapable of successfully encountering
European troops in regular warfare.

The improvement, within the last two years, in Britain's
strategical position in the Far East has not kept pace with the
rapid advance in Russia's military strength in those regions since
the Muscovites entered into possession of Port Arthur and began

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. ix

to pour a never-ending stream of troops and armaments into the
formidable place of arms they have also turned into one of the
world's largest storehouses of steam coal. Whatever gain, and
it is small enough, may have accrued to Britain in a military
sense is more than counterbalanced by the continued loss of
prestige, that most important factor in Far Eastern affairs.
Deeply impressed by Russia's relentless advance, the Chinese
authorities were already only too much disposed to make light
of Britain's power when the news of our early disasters in South
Africa, much exaggerated in transmission, and distorted to our
further disadvantage by unfriendly Occidental channels of infor-
mation, came to convince them that as a Great Power Britain
was " played out." And they acted accordingly, snubbing British
diplomacy at every turn, and calmly ignoring, for months to-
gether, its claims, its representations, its protests and its threats.
Even in Japan, a country so predisposed to cordial relations with
Britain, the echoes of the news from South Africa in the earlier
part of the war shook the belief of many in Britain's ability to
defend her interests in the Far East. The want of military
foresight, to put it mildly, displayed at the outset, made a deep
impression on the Japanese mind. There were not wanting un-
friendly critics amongst the Non-British foreign residents in Japan
who spared no efforts to increase this impression, and it is greatly
to the credit of Japanese common-sense that the majority of the
people suspended their ultimate judgment until the news of the
turn of the tide in South Africa came to justify the attitude of
the Japanese press, which sided, with few and unimportant ex-
ceptions, with Britain from the commencement of the struggle.

Korea is still, as in 1898, a prey to conflicting factions, an
" Empire " save the mark ! torn by dissensions and mis-
governed to an almost incredible degree. As for Japan, pursuing
her onward march in the path of civilisation according to
Western methods, adapted to her needs, she is daily gaining in
strength. That Japan, with her powerful navy and her excellent
army, holds the key of the Far Eastern Question is even more
evident now than when this book was written. Her navy and
her army have vastly increased in power since Chapter VIT.
(" Fighting Power ") was penned, but their development has
proceeded along the lines indicated in that chapter. I was able,
last summer, thanks to the special opportunities so courteously
given to me by the Japanese naval and military authorities, to
satisfy myself, by careful personal investigation, of the absolute

x PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

efficiency of Japan's forces by sea and land. At this moment
Japan possesses the most powerful battleship afloat a sister-ship
is almost ready for sea and her admirably-conceived Naval
Programme is approaching completion, whilst the value of her
perfectly-organised and sensibly-equipped army has been im-
mensely increased by the re-armament of the Field Artillery with
quick-firing, "non-recoiling" guns, immeasurably superior to the
obsolete field ordnance taken out to South Africa by our own
Royal Artillery.

And what of China ? The Chinese people, entertaining a
strong and not unnatural objection to the virtual absorption of
parts of their country by foreign Powers, have determined on
making a bold attempt to put an end to the continual grabbing
of" Leased Territories " and " Spheres of Influence." " China for
the Chinese ! " is now the national cry, and they mean thereby
" China for the Chinese only ! " To ensure this end, they are
making a desperate effort to remove the hated foreigners from
within the borders of the Celestial Empire. Perusal of Chapter
IV. ("The Men of Old China") will give an insight into the
Chinese spirit and will show the reasons that make it so easy for
the ruling classes to inflame the passions of the populace against
the " Foreign Devils " whose subversive influence threatens the
whole system of administrative corruption on which the officials,
with few exceptions, fatten. The Mandarins have done their fell
work but too thoroughly. Hell is let loose in a great part of
China, and more than one of the Great Powers looks not un-
favourably upon the idea of furnishing Japan with an International
Mandate to act as the World's Police in restoring peace and order
in the distracted Empire. This course appeals strongly to those
Powers that realise most clearly the great dangers and the
enormous difficulties attendant on operations carried on by
combined International Forces. One of these difficulties, and it is
indeed a serious one, presents itself at once in the fact that the
eight Powers whose armed forces have been landed in China use
eight different rifles, and, consequently, eight different patterns
of cartridges. It is easy to imagine the difficulty of keeping
an International Column properly supplied with ammunition in
these circumstances.

The giving of an International Mandate to Japan, the Power
most favourably situated for the performance of such a gigantic
task, meets with two serious obstacles : the objection of Russia
to anything tending to increase Japan's importance, and to

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xi

diminish her own, in Eastern Asia, and the natural disinclination
of Japan " once bitten, twice shy ! " to undertake the onerous
duty of World's Police in China without first obtaining the most
satisfactory guarantees that her national interests would gain
substantially in return for the blood and the treasure she would
be called upon to expend. Japan has not forgotten, nor is she
likely to forget, her treatment by the " Long Firm," Russia
France and Germany, immediately after her victory over China.
The intervention of the three Great Powers that forced her to
give up Port Arthur so that Russia might seize that coveted
place of arms, and Britain's and America's neglect, at that critical
moment, of the interests of Japan, that are also their interests in
the Far East these are a crime and a blunder the memory of
which rankles in the Japanese heart. The blunder on the part of
the English-speaking nations is forgiven they are suffering
heavily enough for it now but it is not forgotten. The Japanese
recognise that espousal of their cause at the time of the interven-
tion of the Three Powers might have led Britain, and perhaps
America, into a conflict with Russia, France and Germany for
which the ever-unready English-speaking nations were unpre-
pared, and the cautious statesmen who direct Japan's policy
hesitate to face a repetition of the situation. They are unwilling
to commit their country to a course that might lead to its being
once more left in the lurch by its natural friends.

What compensation could Europe and America guarantee
to Japan were she, as the World's Constable, entrusted with a
warrant for the pacification of China ? It has been suggested
that her reward should be territorial, that the Province of
Fu-kien (opposite to her new dependency, Formosa) should be
handed over to her by the grateful Powers for her " Sphere of
Influence." Japan would reply, "Thank you for nothing !" for
she has already secured, by arrangement with China, Fu-kieu
as her prospective " Sphere," not to be alienated to any other
Power. Japan's guerdon must be of a different kind to in-
duce her to run the great risks involved. We may obtain
some idea of its probable nature if we bear in mind that the
ideal of the Japanese is the regeneration of China by Japanese
agency. They aspire to lead their tottering "Elder Brother"
away from the brink of the precipice into the safe road of
modern enlightenment along which Japan has so rapidly
marched within the last thirty years of the nineteenth century.

That Japan is better fitted to undertake this stupendous task

xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.

than any other Power is, I trust, clearly indicated in the following
pages. That she would undertake it from purely disinterested
motives is not to be expected ; a certain amount of exploitation
seems inseparable from the task of regenerating a nation. Should
Japan assume the enormous responsibility of pacifying and
cleansing, of regulating and educating China, she would deserve
to reap very substantial profit from her efforts. In the immediate
future the whole world would be the gainer, and the Powers
could well afford to let Japan obtain a very large share of the
benefits accruing from her labours.

Whether the situation to be created in the remote future
by an awakening of China's millions, quickened into new life
under Japanese, or, indeed, iinder any civilised guidance,
would present dangers, the magnitude of which can hardly be
estimated, to the interests of the white race that is one of
the greatest, probably the greatest problem before the Occi-
dental world to-day. In order to consider this " Yellow Peril "
(treated of in Chapter VIII.) with the necessary calm, the
statesmen of the West must await the extinction of the present
conflagration in China, a blaze that threatens to extend far beyond
the borders of the Celestial Empire. It is when the flames have
been put out in China that the greatest danger may arise. The
International Fire Brigade, a very mixed body, may not be unani-
mous as to the best means to adopt to prevent a renewal of the
catastrophe. Their ideas as to preventive measures may differ,
and dissensions may easily arise as to the proper remuneration
some, if not all, of the Firemen will claim for their services. A
grouping of the Powers may take place, in which it is fervently
to be hoped, for the sake of peace, that Britain, America, and
Japan, perhaps also Italy whose interests are, in the main,
identical may have the wisdom to stand steadfastly together.
That this is the desire of the vast majority of the Japanese nation
I know from personal experience, for I had, last summer, unusual
opportunities of ascertaining the feelings towards the English-
speaking nations of Japanese of all classes, from the Emperor in
his palace at Tokio to the humblest of His Majesty's subjects in
remote mountain villages. But this feeling of friendship for
Britain and America, based on mutual interests, will not lead the
shrewd Japanese into a policy of adventure. They will fight, and
fight heroically, if their national interests absolutely demand it ;
but what they require above all is Peace a few years, at least, of
Peace to further the development of their rising industries and

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. xiii

to attract the foreign capital of which those enterprises stand so
much in need.

Will the English-speaking nations entrust the chief share
in the regeneration of China to Japan ? Will they combine
to protect Japan from the possible, nay, probable, interference of
other Powers in the execution of her task ? Can they persuade
Germany to give them her support, or, at least, assurances of
her neutrality ? Will they guarantee to Japan a reasonable
return for her labours ? These are questions demanding close
study. If the English-speaking nations really desire to approach
the solution of the tremendous Chinese problem a Chinese
puzzle if ever there was one ! with clear comprehension of the
facts they must first make up their minds to ignore the mis-
chievous political catch-words that have come into such promi-
nence of late, terms that are mere words, obscuring the real
issues at stake. Let us think less of "Treaty Rights" in a
country whose Government has no adequate means (and no
will to do so if it had the means) to enforce the treaties wrung
from it by force and threats ; let us think less of " Spheres of
Influence " in plain English : " Spheres of Exploitation "
vaguely defined, like that hazy notion of the " Yang-tsze Valley, 1 '
so glibly used by thousands who have no idea of its exact where-
abouts. Let us cease to consider the removal from power of
the Dowager Empress of China, or even of the still more
rabidly anti-foreign Prince Tiian, as the panacea for all the ills
that China is heir to ; the masterful old lady and the rabid
Prince must go, indeed, but their disappearance from the scene
will by no means solve the question, for they respectively wield
their immense influence chiefly because each of them is, in
different degrees, the incarnation of the anti-foreign spirit that
pervades the minds of the majority of the Chinese. Let us
remember that the " Righteous Harmonists," whom English
journalists in the Treaty Ports have so conveniently dubbed
" The Boxers," are not merely one of the numerous Secret
Societies with which China is honeycombed, but that they repre-
sent the feelings of the vast majority of the pig tailed hundreds
of millions in their war-cry : " Expel the Foreigners ! " (The
same cry heralded the dawn of the New Era in Japan ; may
it be a like portent in China !) Above all, let us bear in mind
that the " Open Door," excellent watchword though it be,
admits of various loose interpretations. It is quite possible for
an astute Power to keep the door widely open, yet to spread

xiv PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

across it a strong, but almost invisible, net that will effectually
shut out the commerce of her rivals.

Whilst we, as a nation, are just beginning to study these
great problems, Japan has long devoted the closest attention to
them. She has applied her wonderful energies to making herself
ready for their solution, in conjunction, at least at first, with
other interested Powers. She has proudly taken her place in
the comity of civilised nations now that her Revised Treaties
with other Powers have come into operation contrary to the
predictions of Occidental croakers in Japan, without causing any
very serious friction and have abolished the humiliating foreign
jurisdiction within her borders and made her, at last, mistress
in her own land. The Japanese are ready. They have learned
the great lesson of latter-day history, of all history, right well, the
lesson that if they want to secure the Peace so necessary to their
development they must be nationally strong. The Gospel
according to Sandow ? Not quite, for national power is strength
of character, of body and of resources, prudently directed by
intellect and knowledge. These combined constitute Might, and
since the days of Bismarck, more than ever, Might has been
Right all over the globe. Is it too much to hope that in the not
too distant future those that are in the Right may be the only
ones who wield the Might ? So may it be, in the Far East
and throughout the world !

ARTHUR DIOSY.
LONDON, July, 1900.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

THIS book is not intended for the expert. It has been written
for the many who, knowing a little about the Far East, are
anxious to know more.

It has been my earnest endeavour to write impartially ; if
any bias be noticeable in the expression of my opinions it is due
to the standpoint from which I consider the subject the stand-
point of one who believes that Britain is called upon to play a
part of supreme importance in the future of Eastern Asia.

Profoundly as I esteem and admire Japan, warmly as I re-
ioice in her rising fortunes, / love Britain, my native country,
best ; and I am convinced that I am serving her in the best way
open to me by endeavouring to contribute to the formation of

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. xv

a sound Public Opinion upon the Far Eastern Question, based on
knowledge of the Truth.

The Inscriptions on the Cover of the volume call for a few
words of explanation :

The three Inscriptions in Oriental characters, to be read from
top to bottom, are translations of the title : The New Far East.

The Inscription on the right is in Chinese, written with the
rather square form of ideograms used for titles of books. It is
due to the deft brush of a distinguished Chinese diplomatist,
one of the few Mandarins who place love of country before love
of self, a true patriot, an erudite scholar, an ardent reformer
and, of course, powerless in the face of the stolid opposition of
the ignorant and the corrupt who are stifling China. The
beautifully formed characters read : Hsin Yuen Tang (" New Far
East "). The Japanese pronunciation of these Chinese characters
is : Shin Yen To.

The Inscription in the centre is in Korean On-mun alphabetic
character, and reads : Sai Tong Pang. The bold, clear characters
were written for me by the brush of a notable Korean, the Sak-sa
Yi Chun-yong, a nephew of the reigning Emperor and a grandson
of that redoubtable personage, His late Highness the Tai-wen-kun,
the father of the present Sovereign. Accomplished and earnest,
Yi Chun-yong adds to his exquisite courtesy and calm dignity
qualities that are general amongst the Korean aristocracy a keen,
receptive intelligence, a thirst for knowledge, a capacity for work,
and a concern for his country's welfare, that are, alas ! rarely
found amongst his compatriots of high rank.

The Inscription on the left is in Japanese Hiragana, or cursive
syllabic character, written, in a fine flowing hand, by Professor
TAKAHASHI Sakuye, of the Imperial Naval Staff College (some-
times called " The Naval University ") at Tokio, a Corresponding
Member of the Japan Society. It reads : Arata-narn Higashi-no
Hate, but the meaning is the same as that of Shin Yen To
(" New Far East ").

All three nationalities can read, and understand, the Inscrip-
tion in Chinese character; although each one would give the
words, as I have just shown, a different sound, the ideograms,
well known to every fairly well-educated man amongst them,
would at once represent, to their minds, the words " New Far
East." But the other two inscriptions can be read only by com-
patriots of those who wrote them or by the few of other

xvi PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

nationalities who have, by dint of much study, acquired the
requisite knowledge neither Chinese nor Korean can read
Japanese Hiragana ; neither Chinese nor Japanese can read
Korean On-mun. Both these systems of writing being phonetic
they express soimds, varying widely in the different tongues : the
Chinese characters, which all three Far Eastern nations use, being
ideographic, express thoughts, that the reader can render in the
sounds of his own language.

With the exception of the reproduction of the celebrated
cartoon drawn by Herr H. Knackfuss from a design by H.M-
William II., German Emperor and King of Prussia, the Illus-
trations have all been drawn specially for this book by KUBOTA
Beisen, of Tokio. I append some particulars regarding this inter-
esting artist, in the very words used, in a recent letter to me,
by my friend Mr. Fukai one of the leading journalists and
authors in New Japan joint editor, with Mr. Tokutomi, of the
Kokumin Shimbun (" The Nation "), an important Tokio daily,
and of the Kokumin-no Tomo (" The Nation's Friend "), a monthly
Review ; and editor of the highly-interesting monthly, in English,
entitled The Far East. Mr. Fukai's English letter deserves to
be quoted unabridged, as evidence of remarkable linguistic talent
on the part of a Japanese who spent but a very short time in
English-speaking countries. He writes :

" KUBOTA Beisen was born in 1852, in the City of Kioto,
the ancient capital, famed for the beauty of its natural scenery
and the excellence of its fine arts. He early made up his mind
to devote himself to art, in spite of the objection of his father,
who wished to let his son succeed him in business. To copy
pictures from story-books was all the practice that he could
make, until, at the age of sixteen, he began to study drawing
under SUZUKI Hyakunen, one of the celebrated masters of the
time. But, even then, his devotion to art was not approved of
by his parents, and he had to pursue his studies during the
night time, when they were asleep.

" His father, once discovering the secret pursuits of the
future artist, went so far as to throw his brushes, and other
materials for drawing, into a river near by. The career of one
of the masters of pictoral " (sic) " art in Japan was begun under
these unfavourable circumstances, and it was only alter his
parents perceived the failing health of their son KUBOTA Beisen
was allowed by them to follow his inclination freely.

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, xvii

u KUBOTA Beisen is a self-made artist, and his style of drawing
is entirely his own. His works are characterised by vivacity >
force, originality of conception and boldness of stroke. His fame
spreads year by year. As early as in 1878 he was called upon
to take part in establishing the School of Art at Kioto. In 1886,
he was ordered to decorate the ceiling and doors of one of the
rooms in the Imperial palace, which was then newly building.
He has been twice abroad ; in 1889, he visited Paris, where he
made a careful study of European masters. Though his style
remains strictly Japanese, there can be no doubt that he has
greatly profited by his knowledge of Western principles and
methods.* Since 1890 KUBOTA Beisen has been attached to the
Kokumin Shimbun, one of the most influential and enterprising
daily newspapers in Tokio. As the Artist- Correspondent of that
Journal, he attended the World's Columbian Exhibition at
Chicago, in 1893, and accompanied the Japanese army at the
time of the war with China. His vivid illustration of the scenes
of the battlefields was very highly appreciated by the public.

"On KUBOTA Beisen's return from, the front, the Emperor
was pleased to summon him to the General Headquarters, and to
order him to draw pictures in the Imperial presence. In Japan,
such an honour is very rarely accorded to artists, and the fact
that KUBOTA Beisen was favoured in this way testifies to the
high position occupied by him."

Thus, verbatim et literatim, a Japanese journalist who learnt
English in Japan, and whose letter bears traces of having been
written on the spur of the moment, without the slightest
hesitation. I may add that a painting by KUBOTA Beisen was
amongst the presents from Japan to Her Majesty the Queen
on the occasion of her " Diamond " Jubilee.

In transliterating proper nouns, and other words, from
Chinese, Japanese, and Korean into the Roman character, I
have followed the method adopted by the Japan Society in its
publications, namely : the vowels to be pronounced as in Italian,
the consonants as in English. The Chinese is identical with
the German it, and the French u ; the Korean 6 is equivalent to
the same letter in German, and to the French eu. In Japanese

* This is not apparent in the illustrations to this book, as he was directed to draw
them in purely Japanese style. It will be remarked that he is much happier in his
representations of thoroughly Far Eastern scenes than in depicting figures in Occidental
costumes.

xviii PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

the final n has a nasal ng sound ; in the case of double consonants
both must be sounded as in amma } a shampooer, pronounced
am-ma and the distinction between the short vowels, z, o, and w,
and the long vowels, z, <?, w, must be carefully observed, as the
meaning often depends upon the slight difference. The Japanese
e is always pronounced as in the English word set I have
thought it necessary to accentuate it (e) when it forms the ter-
minal sound of a Japanese word, as in sakt, rice-wine, the tendency
of the English tongue being to treat the final e as mute.

The hyphen is used, in the transliteration of Far Eastern com-
pound words, to indicate the parts represented in the original by
separate Chinese ideograms. I have refrained, however, from
using the hyphen in the geographical names in frequent use, such
as Peking and Tokio (really : Pe-king, To-kio, each of these
names being written with two Chinese characters), and in Japanese
personal names. Although the names of the present capital of
Japan, formerly Yedo, and of the ancient Imperial Court City, are
now often transliterated : Tokyo (" Eastern Capital "), and Kyoto
(the latter also : Sai-kyo, " Western Capital "), I have kept to the
orthography adopted by the Japanese Post Office : Tokio and
Kioto.

In the names of Far Eastern persons, the word in HOLD type
is the family name, corresponding to our surname. As will be
noticed, it comes before the personal appellation, answering to our
Christian name the Chinese, the Japanese and the Koreans
(and, in Europe, a nation originally of the same stock, the
Magyars, whose names are placed in the same order), arguing,
with considerable logical force, that an individual owns the
family name from birth, the other name, or names, being-
bestowed later. Our opposite method has so accustomed us to
look upon the last name as the one indicating the family, that
I have thought it advisable to adopt the course pursued in the
publications of the Japan Society, and to distinguish the family
name, where it appears in conjunction with a " given name,"
by using bolder type.

I need hardly state that the Japan Society is in no way
responsible for the views expressed in this book, which are
entirely my own personal opinions.

ARTHUR Di6sv.

LONDON, November, 1898.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

PREFACE .... ...... v

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS . xx

I. THE BIRTH OF THE NEW FAR EAST . . i
II. PARTING, PIGTAIL, AND TOPKNOT . . .36

III. THE MEN OF NEW JAPAN ... . -99

IV. THE MEN OF OLD CHINA . . . .184

V. THE WOMEN OF THE NEW FAR EAST . . 235

VI. THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR . . .- . .280

VII. FIGHTING POWER . . . . . . 307

VIII. THE YELLOW PERIL 327

IX. RUSSIA, FRANCE, AND GERMANY IN THE FAR EAST 340

X. BRITAIN'S CLEAR COURSE 356

INDEX . 369

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

THE YELLOW PERIL (The German Version). Drawn, in 1895, by H.
Knackfuss, from a Design by His Majesty William II., German
Emperor, King of Prussia .... Frontispiece

NEW JAPAN : Ginza, a Main Street of Tokio, in 1898. Drawn by KUBOTA

Beisen . * To fact p. 16

OLD JAPAN : A Warship of the Shogun, of the Period Ka-yei (A.D. 1848-

1854). Drawn by KUBOTA Beisen . . To face p. 66

A STREET IN SOUL : The Capital of Korea, in 1898. Drawn by KUBOTA

Beisen . . . . . . To face p. 92

NEW JAPAN : Her Majesty the Empress presiding at a Meeting of the
Council of the Ladies' Branch of the Red Cross Society of Japan.
Making Bandages for the Wounded (1895). Drawn by KUBOTA
Beisen ...... To face p. 134

NEW JAPAN : A Sergeant of the Infantry of the Line, in Field Service
Order, as in the early part of the War against China (1894).
Drawn by KUBOTA Beisen .... To face p. 318

THE REAL YELLOW PERIL : China Awakened. A Forecast. Drawn by

KUBOTA Beisen ..... To face p. 336

RUSSIA'S ADVANCE IN THE FAR EAST, 1858 to 1898. Drawn, under

the direction of the Author, by H. J. Evans . To face p. 342

THE NEW FAR EAST

CHAPTER I.
THE BIRTH OF THE NEW FAR EAST.

ON the seventeenth of September, 1894, n " om noon to
sunset, the thunder of great guns rolled over the
waters of Korea Bay, between the Island of Hai-
yang and the mouth of the Yalu River, proclaiming to an
amazed world the birth of the New Far East.

In that fierce sea-fight, by its consequences the most
important naval action since Trafalgar, Japan had com-
pletely broken China's maritime power. The hotly-contested
battle between the fleets of the two great yellow peoples,
using, for the first time in warfare, the latest death-dealing
devices of the white men, had resulted in a victory for
Japan so decisive that from that moment no doubt as
to the ultimate issue of the struggle could arise in the
minds of those who understood the modem science of war.

The Japanese fleet, consisting chiefly of unarmoured
cruisers (not one of its three ironclads falling within the
category of modem armoured battleships), had sunk, or
burnt, without very serious damage to any of its own
vessels, one of the five armoured ships (two of them
powerful battleships) and four of the cruisers of the
Chinese squadron. Those of Vice-Admiral Ting's battleships
and cruisers that escaped destruction off the mouth of
the Yalu were to meet their fate later at Wei-hai-wei ;
those the Japanese torpedos did not sink proving welcome
additions to the fleet of Japan.
B

2 THE NEW FAR EAST.

The victory in Korea Bay had given Japan the com-
mand of the sea. Her squadrons could, thenceforward,
range freely over the China seas, her admirably-equipped
armies could land, almost unopposed, at the points offering
the greatest advantages for those combined operations by
sea and land that placed the gateways of Northern China
Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei in her possession, and,
most important fact of all, her communications with the
base at home were secure from any danger. The Dragon
Flag had disappeared from the Eastern seas, and the
perfect security with which Japan could forward reinforce-
ments and supplies to her armies in the field rendered
her ultimate triumph merely a matter of time.

Vice- Admiral Ito's victory over his gallant adversary,
Vice-Admiral Ting, had secured for Japan a moral success no
less important than the great material advantages reaped.
It had proved conclusively to the world the fact, hardly
realised up to that time by the Japanese themselves,
that the sailors of New Japan were fully capable of
using to the best advantage, with a cool, calculating skill
for which even their own countrymen had not hitherto
given them credit, the complicated engines of destruction
devised by Western men of science, the effects of which
were, until then, still matter for speculation. Moreover,
the Japanese had now proved that they could achieve
these results alone, unaided by foreign supervision, even
against an enemy assisted by many brave and experienced
European and American officers.

The importance of the Yalu sea-fight was quickly
appreciated throughout the world. It revealed suddenly,
as if by magic, the existence of an entirely new, hitherto
barely suspected, condition of affairs in Eastern Asia.
That huge Chinese Empire, which the Western world,
ever ready to mistake bigness for greatness, had credited
with boundless stores of latent strength, was shown to
be an inert mass of corruption, feebly drifting towards
disintegration, whilst Japan stood revealed in the fall

A TRANSPORMATION SCENE. 3

glare of a new light as a nation no longer in leading-
strings, but capable of being, and fully determined to
be, a dominant factor in Eastern Asia a power to be
reckoned with, in future, in any political combination
affecting the countries which face the rising sun. Pre-
conceived notions, deeply implanted in the minds of
Western statesmen, were uprooted, popular misconceptions
received a rude shock ; and, as the battle-smoke drifted
away over the waves of the China Sea, the astonished
eyes of Occidentals beheld the Old Far East sinking in
the flood, along with the boasted naval power of China,
and, in its stead, rising steadily from " the Edge of Asia/'
the New Far East came into view.

The revelation of the new order of things in Eastern
Asia caused surprise, bordering on amazement, not only
amongst the peoples of Europe, but even in the councils
of their statesmen. Sufficient prescience might have been
expected from the Cabinets to render impossible the un-
seemly state of flurry into which the victory of Japan
threw the Governments of all the European states having
Asiatic interests, with the exception of one. The imper-
turbable statesmen, unhampered by Parliament or Press,
who steadfastly direct the unchanging policy of the colossal
Russian Empire, were, as usual, prepared for any emerg-
ency. The conflict between China and Japan, with its
inevitable result, had come to pass, owing to the sagacity
of Japan's military advisers, a few years too soon to fit
accurately into Russia's plans. The far-sighted, scientific
soldiers who direct Japan's military policy had fully
realised that the decisive blow must be struck at China
before the completion of the great railway across Siberia
made the Tsar the arbiter of Northern and North-Eastern
Asia, and gave him a preponderating influence throughout
the vast realm of China. The statesmen of St. Peters-
burg gave their closest attention to the struggle by land
and sea, inwardly regretting, no doubt, what was for
them its premature occurrence. They noted the facts,

4 THE NEW FAR EAST.

registered the birth of the New Far East, and prepared
to shape their course accordingly, making the necessary
minor alterations in a policy the main outlines whereof
had been laid down in the last century and unceasingly
kept in view ever since.

Quite otherwise was the situation faced in other Euro-
pean countries, and especially by the British nation, whose
interests in the Far East vastly outweigh those of all
other Powers. In order to appreciate the great difficulties
which stand in the way of a clear comprehension of the
problems of the Far East, it is necessary to investigate
the causes of the surprise prevailing amongst the nations,
and of the unpreparedness of most of the Governments,
in presence of a situation that should not have been un-
expected. The state of things implied by the term "the
New Far East," had, indeed, been gradually, and steadily,
coming into existence ever since, in 1841, the echoes
of the British guns, battering down the forts in the
Canton River, had reached the shores of Japan ; but it
was only now that Europe in general, and Britain in
particular, became aware of the stupendous results of that
first collision between the iron pot of Modern Europe
and the earthen jar of the Old Far East. An examina-
tion of the causes that retarded Occidental, and especially
British, recognition of the true facts relating to the great
change in Eastern Asia, will give us some idea of the
sources of information regarding the Far East generally
available prior to the war between China and Japan,
and of the relative value of these sources. It will also,
incidentally, reveal the causes of many grievous blunders
committed by European statesmen in their Far Eastern
policy. It will explain certain aspects of the question not
easily understood at first sight, and it should prove full
of warning as to the necessity for being well posted in
the matter, whilst exercising the greatest caution in the
selection of sources of information.

The opening lines of an old German students' song,

11 WILFUL IGNORANCE." 5

by Wollheim, aptly describe the state of Occidental feeling
when the New Far East first stood revealed :

" Ganz Europa vcundert sich nicht wenig,
Welch 1 ein neues Reich entstanden ist."

As the old Studentenlicd prophetically puts it :

" All Europe wonders not a little
At the new Empire that has arisen."

Why this astonishment on the part of the Western
nations ? Surely, it was not for want of channels of
information, presumably trustworthy and easy of access.
The West had long been represented in the Far East by
a numerous body of trained diplomatists and consular
officers ; its warships and its merchant vessels flocked to
the Eastern Seas ; many of its most able men of science
had been engaged for years in teaching the youth of New-
Japan or in exploring the vast interior of China ; hundreds
of devoted men and women were spending their lives
amongst the people of the yellow races, preaching the
religion of Christ ; commercial intercourse, vastly facilitated
by steam navigation and telegraphic communication, was
daily forming new links between the continents, and the
narratives of travellers into Far Cathay and into the Land
of the Rising Sun filled many bulky volumes. Yet, what
was the general opinion of the West at the commence-
ment of the struggle that was so completely to revolu-
tionise Eastern Asia, to upset the balance of power in
the East, to affect it seriously in the West, and to produce
the actual political situation, fraught with such momentous
consequences in the near future ?

When, in the summer of 1894, the news of Japan's
declaration of war against China was received, the feeling
all over the civilised world, except in the British Empire,
was one of sympathy with Japan. Hopes were loudly
expressed that she would prevail over her huge adversary,
but, in almost every country, doubts were entertained as

6 THE NEW FAR EAST.

to her ability to do so. In Germany alone did public
opinion from the outset predict the victory of the Japanese
armies, knowing them to have been organised on a
system skilfully adapted to Japanese requirements from
the German model. The German Staff Officers, who had
acted for years as advisers in the organisation and training
for war of the Japanese army, had returned to Berlin well
satisfied with the progress made by their apt pupils. As
usual, the Germans possessed sound information on all the
points of the approaching conflict. They were not only
aware of the military efficiency of the Japanese and of
their perfect readiness for war, but they also knew from
those German officers who were engaged as instructors
by various Chinese Viceroys how hopeless was the
attempt to overcome the ill-will, the ignorance, and the
corruption of the Military Mandarins, who at every turn
frustrated their heroic efforts to make an army out of
the raw material abounding in China.

The Russian press waited to see which way British
opinion would incline, and as soon as its tendency showed,
at the very outset of the war, a leaning towards China,
what passes for " public opinion " in Russia took the
opposite view. This did not, of course, affect the attitude
of the Russian Government ; that made no pronouncement
of its views until the moment of the crisis, when it
stepped into the arena, calm, cool, ready with a well-
defined policy, and supported by allied Governments help-
ing Russia to carry out that policy, utterly regardless of
what had been, up to that very time, the loudly-expressed
public opinion of their own nations.

The attitude of the British nation, whose vast interests
in Asia made it, of right, the most nearly concerned of
the neutral Powers, was at the outset matter for pained
surprise to all those who really understood the position
of affairs and the magnitude of the issues. As soon as it
became known that Japan had resolved upon challenging
China to a trial of strength on sea and land nominally

JOHN BULKS AMENITIES. 7

as a solution of their conflict of interests in Korea, really
in order to determine, once for all, which was to be the
predominant empire in the Mongolian East a wave of
indignation swept over Britain. " What ! " cried the
average Briton, represented by his principal newspapers
and magazines, with few exceptions, " What ! Those
impertinent little 'Japs' going wantonly to attack our
natural ally, China, to disturb the balance of power, to
jeopardise trade ! They will have to pay dearly for their
presumption. They may score a success or two just at
first, but when China brings into play her enormous latent
strength, when her huge population, her unlimited resources,
her boundless staying power, begin to tell, Japan must
needs be crushed in the unequal conflict."

Thus spoke John Bull in his wrath against the pre-
sumptuous "Japs," as he has, unfortunately, got into the
habit of calling the natives of Japan, not only colloquially,
but also in print in "smart," and would-be "smart,"
books of travel and in the organs of the New Journalism.
Let me here make a friendly protest against the use of
this slipshod vulgarism, an importation from across the
Atlantic that is highly offensive to the Japanese. They do
not realise the craving for abbreviations characteristic of
the lazy Anglo-Saxon tongue, whose indolence has well-
nigh killed the art of conversation in English. They fail
to appreciate the fact that the term " Jap " is often
employed in perfect good humour, implying a feeling of
sympathetic familiarity, for in Japan the rules of a strict
etiquette, of hoary antiquity, are punctiliously observed in
the daily intercourse of all classes, even between the
nearest relations. Familiarity, as we know it, between
parent and child, husband and wife, brother and sister, or
between friends, appears ill-bred to the Japanese mind.
However intimate a Japanese may be with a friend, he
never slaps him on the back nor calls him " old man ! "
Hence the feeling of irritation experienced by them
when we, however cheerily, call them by the distasteful

8 THE NEW FAR EAST.

abbreviation. A Japanese once said to me : " If your
people call us 'Japs/ we shall" he paused before gravely
uttering the dire threat " we shall have to call you
' Brits ' ! " It is to be feared that even this menace may
not deter Britons from using a term in which they can
see no harm. Their own good feeling will, I hope,
prompt them to abandon it as soon as they know it to
be offensive to the Japanese the most sensitive, the most
punctilious of nations, whose exquisite courtesy surely
deserves some return on our part.

At the time of which I am writing, however, John
Bull used the word " Japs " in a contemptuous sense, for
he was very angry indeed at the Japanese attack on his
supposed "ally," China. The history of Britain's relations
with the Far East is full of myths (we have all heard ol
" the legend of Ta-lien-wan "), and the myth of the
Chinese alliance is one of the most curious. In spite of
all the symptoms of creeping paralysis and of senile decay
the Chinese Empire had manifested for years past, a belief
had taken root in the British mind that imprisoned in the
form of the decrepit Chinese dragon lay an enchanted
Princess, awaiting deliverance at the hands of a British
Prince Charming. The meekness with which successive
British Governments had, of late years, endured the
many outrages on their subjects in China, the obstacles
openly or secretly opposed to legitimate commerce,
and the continual slights put upon Britain's representa-
tives, was supposed to be part of an astute policy.
The Chinese were to see in this forbearance the clearest
proof that Britain was their only true friend, generous
and forgiving to a fault ; and, in return, when the day
of their awakening came, it was from Britain they were
to obtain their new civilisation, including, of course,
largely increased quantities of Manchester goods, and
of the products of Birmingham and of Sheffield, as its
necessary adjuncts. Another priceless boon was to be ours
in consequence of our friendship with China her teeming

CELESTIAL VISIONS. 9

millions were to supply us, in time of need, with a huge
army, trained and led by British officers, an army whose
mere existence would reduce Russia to inactivity in Asia
and render India safe from any attack.

This delusion was fostered in high places. No less an
authority than Field-Marshal Viscount Wolseley had testi-
fied, in print, to the excellent military qualities to be
found in the Chinese, foretelling the dire distress of Europe,
overrun by millions of Celestials, armed, drilled, and dis-
ciplined on Western principles. Other military experts had
foreshadowed the raising of that enormous host, under
British command, which was, some day, to checkmate
Russia. The Chinese navy, too, was supposed to have been
brought to a high state of efficiency under the guidance
of Captain Lang and the British instructors associated
with him. And now those restless Japanese, for no
apparent valid reason, were about to imperil the realisation
of these magnificent schemes by a wanton aggression, sure
to result in their own undoing, but equally certain to
destroy, for a time at least, Britain's great Far Eastern
trade. Japan would, without doubt, pay heavily for her
temerity. Such was the trend of British public opinion,
and it is just possible that, at all events, in the minds of
the British commercial settlers in the Far East, a slightly
malicious pleasure entered into the prospect of Japan's
discomfiture.

When Japan's overweening pride was thoroughly
humbled by defeat there was no "if" about it in the
minds of these prophets of evil the new Revised Treaty
just concluded between Britain and Japan, whereby Japan
had, for the first time, been recognised as a nation to be
treated on the footing of an equal, would easily be
rendered inoperative, and British subjects would be spared
the indignity of having to abandon their privileged posi-
tion, and of becoming amenable to Japanese jurisdiction.
Moreover, Britain would, no doubt, step in at the right
moment to save Japan from utter annihilation by China

io THE NEW FAR EAST.

the contingency of such ultimate intervention was seriously
discussed in several newspapers and Japan would, of
course, be eternally grateful to her rescuer, and would
show her gratitude in tangible form. There was also, in
the minds of some, a vague feeling that it might not be
to Britain's disadvantage were Japan's rising naval power,
now emancipated from British tutelage, to meet with a
serious check, as was sure to be the case when her ships
commanded, officered, and manned entirely by natives
met China's fleet, directed by the numerous European and
American officers serving, as advisers and instructors, under
the Dragon Flag.

How strangely the leading articles, the long and solemn
contributions to the newspapers and magazines, of those
summer months of 1894, now read!

Naturally, all Britons did not share the views just
stated. The members of .the Japan Society, for instance,
about six hundred in number at that period (the number
is now very much larger), thought otherwise, and fore-
told Japan's victory. The accuracy of their prophecy is
easily accounted for. The American humourist's warning
explains it : " Never prophesy unless you know." They
had access to trustworthy information, and they knew.

The great majority of the nation were not in posses-
, sion of the facts regarding the Far East, and the British
Government was but little better informed. At all events,
if the Government knew more about the situation than
"the general public and it would naturally know more it
shared, to a great extent, the erroneous views of the
majority as to the likely outcome of the struggle. People
and Government continued in their error until the logic of
facts convinced them, very shortly after the outbreak of
hostilities, that they were "backing the wrong horse. >r
As soon as they realised this, a sudden and total change
took place in public opinion and in the attitude of the
Government, the change in the Cabinet's policy following,
in truly British fashion, the alteration in the views of the

AN UNHEEDED CONTRAST, 11

nation. In France and in Germany, on the contrary, the
apparently sudden change in the policy of the Cabinets
that placed those powers in alliance with Russia for the
purpose of coercing victorious Japan, caused a complete
revulsion in the opinions and sympathies of the people,
turning them from ardent " Japanophiles " into stern
opponents of the aspirations of Japan. In Russia, what
does duty for public opinion is supplied, strictly according
to regulation pattern, by a paternal government.

I have stated that the majority of Occidentals, and
especially of Britons, were misinformed as to the forces
operating to produce the New Far East. It is of great
importance that the causes of this lamentable ignorance,
and of the prejudiced views that resulted from it, should
be ascertained, because it seems but too probable that
they are still, to a certain extent, in existence. The
danger still confronts us that this ignorance modified, it
is true, but not dispelled of the real factors at work in
the Far East, may lead us, in the future, into errors
fraught with consequences even more disastrous to our
interests than those which followed on our blunders in
the past.

For a quarter of a century the sun of New Japan
had been steadily rising over the horizon, whilst China
continued to sink deeper and deeper into the slough
of corruption, losing one tributary state after another
through the incompetence and venality of her officials,
the inefficiency of her diplomatists, and the contemptible
weakness of her forces. To most Occidentals the contrast
presented by the two nations unfortunately failed to
convey its lesson. In their eyes, and especially in those
of British people, China still loomed mysterious, huge,
possessed of vast latent power and of untold resources. It
seemed impossible that such a large proportion of the
human race should remain absolutely deaf to the voice
of progress, perfectly blind to the advantages of modern
civilisation. The slightest sign of movement in a forward

12 THE NEW FAR EAST.

direction, although it was chiefly aimed at the possession
of modern armaments, was hailed by the West as an
indication that China was really on the eve of her
awakening. The wish was father to the thought, and
much sympathy was wasted on what were erroneously
held to be symptoms of China's resurrection.

As for Japan, it was still, in the opinion of the great
majority of Europeans and of Americans, what it had
always been, a pleasant land of beautiful scenery, bright
with lovely flowers ; a country inhabited by an interesting
race with charming, gentle manners, imbued with delicate
artistic taste, and showing, in recent times, a marvellous
aptitude for assimilating Western civilisation, often in a
manner producing quaint, even grotesque, results. In
short, Japan was, to the Western world, that strange
medley of the beautiful and the comical described in
the narratives of scores of travellers in the Land of the
Rising Sun.

Until the battle of Ping-yang (in Korean, "Phyong-
yang"), the first in which the army of New Japan
proved its complete efficiency, and the naval victory off
the mouth of the Yalu, testified to her attainment of
her majority as a modern nation, the Western peoples
had never taken Japan seriously. The wonderful intel-
ligence and spirit of adaptability of the Japanese had
long been recognised, they had been patted on the head
and smilingly praised for their successful " imitation,"
as it was thought to be it was really adaptation
of certain phases of European civilisation, and in some
quarters, and those laying claim to be the best in-
formed, they had been solemnly warned of their inherent
weakness, of the futility of any attempt on their part
to enter into serious rivalry with European Powers.
The West, having delivered its praise and its homily,
turned its attention to the lacquer and the carvings, the
bronzes and the coloured prints, of Old Japan, and, with
a pitying smile, left the New to struggle through its

UIMPR&VU COMES AT LAST. 13

political teething, its attempt at Parliamentary Govern-
ment.

A few months changed all this. The Risen Sun of
Japan, shining on her victorious armies and fleet, cast its
rays into every diplomatic Chancellerie in Europe, and
produced in all of them, except amongst the ice-cool heads
in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the banks of the
Neva, a remarkable effect. A sort of "Japan sunstroke"
affected the entire personnel, not excepting even those
who steered the various ships of state. Such a flutter-
ing of diplomatic dovecotes, such a general "setting to
partners," such an almost universal re-casting of parts in
the great historical drama, had, in all probability, not
occurred since those sultry days, twenty-five years before,
when the Napoleonic Empire succumbed to the sledge-
hammer blows of the Germans. The confusion and
bewilderment, the upsetting of preconceived notions, was
not limited to diplomatic circles ; in the journalistic world
the flurry was, if possible, still greater. Whilst Ministers
of Foreign Affairs hastily called for half-forgotten des
patches from the Far East, slumbering in dusty pigeon-
holes, and Under-Secretaries of State " got up " the subject
feverishly, with the help of large maps, there was much
sharpening of editorial pencils and a great exercise of
editorial ingenuity in the attempt to explain away those
inconvenient leading articles, but a few weeks old, in
which Japan's endeavour against her colossal foe had been
foredoomed to utter failure. The editors might have
spared themselves much trouble had they borne in mind
the fact that the public seldom have a retentive memory
for the contents of leading articles.

The question naturally arises, how happened it that
those presumably in the best position to forecast the
course of events were so entirely at fault ?

Their want of prescience must appear all the more
remarkable when the manifold opportunities are considered
that Europe and America had for some years enjoyed,

i 4 THE NEW FAR EAST.

enabling them, one would think, to ascertain the truth
about New Japan. Thanks to the Canadian Pacific route,
Tokio had already for some time been within little more
than a month's journey from London. Japan was already
included in the " Grand Tour," considered indispensable as
giving the finishing touch to higher education. Not only
had hundreds of "globe-trotters" (now increased to thou-
sands), been piloted safely through Japan, thanks chiefly to
the ubiquitous dynasty of Cook and to its active emissaries,
but scores of eminent personages as well. Several of
these had been lavishly entertained at the expense of the
Japanese Government, a fact a few of them seemed to for-
get in after years ; others, not quite so eminent, had landed
in Japan provided with the particular kind of useful letter
of introduction known as "the Diplomatic Soup-ticket,"
ensuring an invitation to the hospitable board of their
country's representative, and, consequently, opportunities
of acquiring much local information from the best sources.
Moreover, large numbers of Japanese officials, students,
and merchants had been living for years in the principal
cities of Europe and America. For at least five years
before the outbreak of the war, hardly a month, nay,
hardly a week, passed without the appearance of some
work on Japan, until the reviewers loudly complained
that Japan had been "overdone." Within the three years
previous to the conflict, the Japan Society had been
firmly established in London, and met with unprecedented
success, counting its members by hundreds, and holding
frequent meetings, at which experts, European and
Japanese, addressed crowded audiences on every variety
of subject connected with Japan, the papers read being
published, in due course, in the Society's Transactions
and Proceedings.

In spite of all this dissemination of information, the
power latent in Japan remained unknown, save to a few
far-seeing individuals, earnest students of Far Eastern
affairs, and these were not heeded when, at the com-

U A REAL LIVE NATION." 15

mencement of hostilities, they proclaimed their belief in
the strength of Japan and in the utter rottenness of
China. The European public, and more particularly the
people of Great Britain, set these cognoscenti down as
misguided visionaries, and blindly followed the lead of
those who were considered most likely to know, and
whose prognostications were so completely stultified by
the events of the war.

In America, those who foretold Japan's victory found
a more sympathetic public, the relations between the
United States and Japan having been for years on a
footing of mutual respect and esteem that was too often
in sharp contrast to the relations of Japan with the
European Powers. For there is something in the "go-
ahead" spirit, the vigour and energy of New Japan, that
is particularly fascinating to the Americans, who admire
"a real live nation" as much as they love "a real live
man." To this must be added the hatred of the average
American towards the Chinese, whom he judges from the
specimens of the race emigrants of the lowest class from
Southern China he sees in his own land, even when he
is not . inflamed against them by the consideration that
they work for wages he could not live on, though mostly
at occupations he considers beneath his own dignity.
These facts, coupled with the memories of Commodore
Perry's expedition in 1853-4, by which America, knocking
loudly at the gates of Japan, already creaking on their
hinges, had first swung them open to the Western world,
account for the clearer grip of the Far Eastern situation
held by the people of the United States, who were
unanimously in favour of Japan during the conflict.

But if the great mass of British public opinion was
hopelessly at fault in its estimate of the relative strength
and capacity of the Empires of the Far East, unfor-
tunately, those who should have led that opinion to
accurate conclusions and to wise resolves were themselves
lamentably ignorant of the truth, and, in their blindness,

16 THE NEW FAR EAST.

committed errors of judgment, some of which appear
irreparable. Incredible as it may seem, their successors at
the helm did not profit by their experience, and made
but futile efforts to repair the mischief wrought by the
astonishing want of foresight of those who, in 1894, should
have known, almost to certainty, what course events
would take.

There is, however, some slight excuse for the states-
men who did not foresee, and for the writers who proved
false prophets; it is to be found in the fact that they
depended for their information on sources apparently trust-
worthy, but, in reality, the least to be relied upon.

The able, genial and courteous gentlemen who, at that
time, represented the Western Powers at the Courts of
Tokio and of Peking, are not entirely to be blamed if
they failed to convince their respective Governments, long
beforehand, of the importance of the events that were in
preparation. Some of them gave their Governments an
inkling of what would, sooner or later, inevitably occur ;
but Ministers of Foreign Affairs did not, as a rule, in
those days, focus their attention on reports from far-off
lands, dealing with apparently remote contingencies. This
does not, of course, apply to Russia, where a special
Asiatic Department of the Foreign Office had, for years,
been kept accurately informed of every phase of the Far
Eastern Question, and had laid its plans according^.
Besides, Russia is so essentially a semi-Asiatic state that
it is incorrect to include her, as is too frequently done,
in the term "the Western Powers." Just at the outbreak
of hostilities, the Foreign Offices of all the Powers, as
well as their Legations at Tokio, were fully occupied with
the important question of the Revision of the Treaties,
in which Great Britain nobly took the lead, in spite of
the vehement opposition of her subjects dwelling in Japan.
The clamour raised by the majority of the Europeans
trading in the Far East in their angry protests against
Treaty Revision caused the low rumblings, premonitory

BLIND WINDOWS ON THE EAST. 17

of the approaching conflict, to pass unnoticed by the
statesmen of the West.

The Legations at Peking were also busy at the time,
especially the notoriously undermanned British Legation.
The astute pettifoggers who compose the Chinese Board
of Foreign Affairs, the far-famed Tsung-li Yamtn, took
good care that the worried and overworked foreign
diplomatists and consular officers should have but little
leisure to devote to probing the rotten condition of China.
They kept them incessantly busy with the thousand and
one details of the every-day routine of diplomatic work
at Peking, which had, for years past, consisted in an
uphill struggle to keep the Celestial authorities to the
fulfilment of treaties, duly signed and ratified, but never
carried out to the full extent of their provisions a struggle
occasionally diversified by claims for indemnities in repara-
tion of outrages on missionaries, and, in the case of the
representatives of the more active Powers of Continental
Europe, .by strenuous efforts to obtain " concessions " for
enterprising financiers, or manufacturers, recommended to
them by their Governments. Thus fully occupied with
the transaction of their ordinary business, the Western
representatives in the Far East had neither time nor
sufficient opportunity to study the grave situation that
was developing around them. Had they done so, it is
questionable whether their reports would have received
the attention due to their importance. Bitter experience
has taught the Western diplomatist that dissertations on
the actual condition and future prospects of the country
he is accredited to, when they do not happen to square
with the views held by his chief at home, are not
conducive to promotion.

As to the non-diplomatic sources from which the West
expected sound information about the strength of the
belligerents in Eastern Asia, they were to be found
amongst the European and American communities in the
Far East, as represented by their newspapers. It may be

1 8 THE NEW FAR EAST.

said, in sober truth, that no less trustworthy guides could
have been found.

There are, probably, no communities, residing out of
their own countries, so absolutely isolated from the people
amongst whom they live, so completely out of touch with
native feeling and aspirations, as the European, and, to a
lesser extent, the American, colonies in the Far East.

Hundreds, nay, thousands, of Occidentals have spent
the best part of their lives in China, accumulating, in
many cases, great wealth derived from trading with the
natives, and have left the Flowery Land almost as
ignorant of the real character of its inhabitants, of their
language, their beliefs and their feelings, as on the day
of their first landing in Far Cathay. Their notions of
the national characteristics have been derived from their
Compradores (it is by this Portuguese word, meaning
" Buyers," that the Chinese employes are designated, who
act as the foreign merchants' intermediaries in their
dealings with native firms), from their " Boys," those
imperturbable, attentive, noiseless body-servants, from the
Ama, the faithful maids and the devoted nurses who
bring up their children ; and the information that has
reached them through these channels has been conveyed
through the medium of " Pidjin - English," the most
curious jargon in the world. What they know of the
character of the Chinese official class, of the thoughts and
feelings of the Mandarins, has been chiefly gathered from
the table-talk of Consuls and of Occidental officers in the
service of the Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs, or
otherwise in Chinese employment. Even such knowledge
is, of necessity, superficial, and consists, principally, of
information, at second-hand, relating to various quaint
instances 01 Chinese official wrong-headedness, of Mandarin
wiles and arrogance. Hardly any attempt is made by the
Western commercial settler to fathom the true meaning
of these instances. They furnish him with material for
entertaining after-dinner stories, especially when he returns

MERCHANTS AND MISSIONARIES. 19

to his native land, they supply topics for leisurely dis-
cussion, over cheroots and "pegs," in well-appointed Far-
Eastern clubs ; but they seldom stimulate an earnest
attempt to understand the causes underlying these mani-
festations of the Chinese spirit. " Queer lot, these
Chinamen ! " says the average European merchant in
China, and rests satisfied that research into the reasons
for their queerness would be fruitless, or, at all events, a
task to be left to the "Mish," as he colloquially terms
the Missionary.

The latter has unusual opportunities for studying the
people most closely ; unfortunately those with whom he
is habitually in contact rarely belong to the official class,
which is paramount in China. Moreover, his views are,
very naturally, tinged with a large amount of prejudice
against the ancient beliefs and moral codes it is his aim
to destroy, in order to make room for the particular
creed and the particular ethical system he has brought
from far beyond the seas. These remarks do not, be it
well understood, apply to all Missionaries, nor do the
foregoing observations hold good of all Occidental mer-
chants in China, for there are, in both classes, notable
exceptions, who really know the workings of the Chinese
mind, and can impartially judge the actions and the
motives of Chinese, high or low, cultured official or lowly
"coolie." What I have said of the isolation of the
foreign communities from the people of the land, of their
lack of deep interest in their surroundings, and of their
ignorance of the forces at work around them, remains
true of the great majority of Western commercial
settlers in China, and, to a considerable extent, of those
in Japan.

Many Occidentals who have spent the greater part or
their lives in Japan have, it is true, acquired considerable
fluency in the colloquial tongue (quite distinct from the
literary language), and an extensive acquaintance with the
manners and customs and the mode of thought of the

20 THE NEW FAR EAST.

classes of natives with which they have come in contact.
Unfortunately, these are seldom the classes that direct
the country's policy. The few foreigners in the employ-
ment of the Japanese Government as Technical Advisers,
and their number is now reduced to a mere handful, do,
indeed, come into daily contact with Japanese of the
governing classes ; but it must be borne in mind that these
Europeans and Americans, whose services to Japan are
beyond all praise, and merit her eternal gratitude, are
never Japanese Government Officers, but are strictly
confined to their limited sphere as advisers and instructors
invaluable guides to be made use of, not responsible
officials to be entrusted with secrets of State.

It was hardly, therefore, from these Advisers that
information could be looked for which might have enabled
the West to forecast the probable course of events in the
Far East, especially as the nature of their duties keeps
them busily engaged in their several special departments,
the Japanese not being at all anxious to afford them
assistance in extending their investigations into the field
of Japanese policy.

A few, very few, Occidentals have succeeded, after
years of patient research making use of a natural gift of
sympathetic insight in lifting the veil behind which the
Far East thinks and hopes and wishes, but their revela-
tions of the workings of the Oriental mind have been
either inaccessible to the general public who do not, as
a rule, read the publications of learned societies, nor works
with grimly forbidding scientific titles or else they have
been looked upon as the views of enthusiasts, earned
away by their own pet hobbies.

One or two of those who had really penetrated into
the innermost recesses of the Japanese heart laboured
under the disadvantage of being imbued with the poetic
spirit, which, harmonising naturally with the fascinating
subject of their study, led them to clothe their thoughts
in language that impaired the scientific value of their

THE ALIENS OP JAPAN. 21

work. Their readers enjoyed a rare literary treat, and
laid their books aside with the reflection that all this was
very beautiful and highly inspiring, but that, after all, it
was poetry, or hyperbolic prose, as the case might be,
and, consequently, untrustworthy as a guide to the truth
about the Far East.

As to the members of the European and American
mercantile community in Japan, what has been stated
about the foreign commercial settlers in China applies, in
great measure, to them. The totally erroneous nature of
their estimate of the capabilities of the people amongst
whom they live is clearly demonstrated by a perusal of
articles in their organs in the foreign press of Japan,
published in the early days of the war. These articles
were full of the gloomiest forebodings as to the upshot of
the conflict ; they eagerly magnified every rumour of a
Japanese reverse, however apocryphal ; they minimised
every report of a Japanese success, and their animus was
but too plainly apparent. If not in so many words, yet
in perfectly unmistakable terms, these newspapers, written
in English for the general foreign community in Japan,
and evidently catering for their tastes, predicted defeat
to the Japanese arms, and scarcely concealed their satis-
faction at the prospect. This sufficiently characterises
their value, at that time, as channels of impartial informa-
tion on Japanese matters. In order rightly to understand
the extraordinary behaviour, in the early stages of the
war, of certain newspapers published in Japan, which have
some claim to be considered as English periodicals, it
may be useful to put a hypothetical case on parallel
lines, in order to illustrate a highly creditable phase of
the Japanese character.

Let us suppose Britain at war with Russia, and several
French newspapers published in London, by Frenchmen,
circulating widely not only amongst the French colony, but
also amongst all the strangers within our gates, and supply-
ing, through the medium of journalistic "exchanges," a large

22 THE NEW FAR EAST.

proportion of the news from England appearing in the Con-
tinental press. Let us, further, assume that the French
colony in London is a large, active, and wealthy com-
munity, enjoying special immunities and privileges, and
subject only to the French Code, administered by French
judges.

Let us imagine that, at the very outset of the war,
when Britain's fate is hanging in the balance all
seemingly depending on the result of one or two pitched
battles on land and a great sea-fight that, at this
moment of national anxiety, the French organs in London,
known to represent the views of the great majority of
the foreign residents, publish article after article predict-
ing disaster to the British armies and fleets, chuckling
maliciously at every rumour of a reverse to a British
column or a mishap to a British ship, and treating the
news of every British victory with sarcastic incredulity
until unable to deny it any longer. What would be the
attitude of the citizens of London towards those news-
papers, their editors and publishers, and towards the
French colony in general ?

Is it wholly improbable that, law-abiding as Londoners
are, the provocation would prove too strong, and that a
riotous London mob, or, possibly, an organised posse 01
irate citizens, would summarily and effectually suppress
the offending journals ?

What was the conduct of the Japanese in circumstances
precisely similar to those imagined ?

Their vernacular press, naturally, evinced the greatest
indignation ; the same feeling was displayed in the leading
English newspaper of Japan The Japan Mail known to
be in close connection with Japanese official circles, and,
at that time, in marked antagonism to the other foreign
journals in the country {The Japan Times, a newspapei
in English, owned, and admirably edited, by Japanese,
had not yet appeared), but not a stone was thrown at
the office of any of the periodicals that published the

THE "PRISON EDITOR." 23

provocative articles, and their editors and contributors
remained absolutely unmolested.

Since the events of the war stultified the prophets of
evil, a marked improvement has taken place in the tone
of the formerly anti-Japanese English press in Japan.
To read their columns, full of appreciative references to
Japanese affairs, one would hardly think it possible that
from the same editorial pens gall and wormwood had so
recently flowed over everything Japanese. Perhaps the
rapid approach of the time when, under the operation
of the Revised Treaties, foreigners in Japan will become
amenable to the laws of the land, and alien editors will,
consequently, be subject to stringent Press Laws, may
have had its share in bringing about this gratifying change
of front. It is suggestive that certain editors of English
newspapers in Japan visited several Japanese gaols (in the
winter of 1897-8), with a view, so they announced, of
ascertaining what kind of prison life awaited Occidentals
who might be convicted by a Japanese judge under the
provisions of the new Treaties. On the editorial staff ot
those very outspoken native Japanese newspapers that
most frequently come into collision with the Press Laws,
a "Prison Editor" is kept, who, instead of going out to
combat not necessarily fatal, or even dangerous for his
journal, like the "Fighting Editor" of the Parisian press,
meekly goes into durance vile whenever the Public Pro-
secutor secures a conviction against the periodical on
which his name figures as "Responsible Editor." The
appointment of such a "man of straw" may be under
consideration, with a view to future contingencies, in more
than one English editorial office in Japan ; but it will
scarcely be necessary if the Japanese authorities, with
their usual tact, recognise, as they probably will, that an
unfettered foreign press provides a useful safety-valve for
the grumbling of the alien settlers, and cannot seriously
affect the mass of the population, unable to read a news-
paper in a foreign language.

24 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Enough has been said to indicate the difficulties
encountered by Occidentals before the war and, to a
certain extent, since, in the attempt to obtain absolutely
unbiassed information as to the real condition of Japan,
the predominant factor in the New Far East, and the
true spirit of its people ; but, in corroboration, a con-
versation may be recalled that took place in London, a
little more than two years before the war, over post-
prandial coffee and cigars, at the table of a prominent
member of the Japan Society, then newly constituted.

Half-a-dozen Englishmen, all intimately connected with
Japan, some of them having spent the best years of their
lives in the country, were discussing its future. One fore-
saw that Japan might, some day, manufacture a very
considerable quantity of the coarser kinds of cotton goods.
Another admitted that Japan might, also in that remote
future indicated by " some day," produce physicians, but
more probably surgeons, whose skill would astonish the
world, and who might greatly further the healing arts.
He believed that Japanese investigators might make
important discoveries in biology, or in chemistry, owing
to their painstaking, minutely precise, methods of research.
A third conceded that the skill of her craftsmen, the
frugality of their mode of living, and the consequent low
rate of wages, might divert certain European industries
to Japan.

One alone, the writer of these pages, sketched in
glowing colours the future of Japan as he foresaw it ; the
sea-power, and its attendant commercial and industrial
activity ; the military efficiency, the patriotic spirit, enabling
the nation to crush its huge rival, China ; then the influx
of capital from abroad, the development of natural re-
sources, the advance in all the sciences ; the great ship-
building industry and the carrying trade in short, Japan
powerful, prosperous, progressive, and rich the Great
Britain of the East !

At once there arose a chorus of dissentient voices,

AN ENTHUSIASTS ILLUSIONS. 25

raising weighty objections. It was evident, they said,
that I was a visionary, carried away by my enthusiasm
into dreams of the utterly impossible. To begin with,
Japan was a poor country, with a larger population than
her natural resources could maintain. Every available acre
of arable land was cultivated, the country was unsuited
for pasture, the forests had been recklessly destroyed in
times past, and many years must elapse before the new
Forestry Laws could show beneficial results. Japan could
never become a great shipbuilding country, as she did not
possess iron in sufficiently large quantities. Her mineral
wealth in general had been much exaggerated ; the gold
mines, for instance, were almost exhausted. Europe and
America need never fear the industrial rivalry of Japan,
whose working classes would, with new wants creating a
higher standard of living, soon combine and strike for
higher wages.

Moreover, urged the objectors, intellectual, quick at
learning, and wonderfully imitative as the Japanese un-
doubtedly were, their mental powers were strictly limited.
Ask anyone, they said, who had instructed Japanese in
large numbers, and you would hear that, with a few
brilliant exceptions, they seemed unable to rise above a
dead level of respectable mediocrity. (This was said as
if it were true of the Japanese only, as if such mental
conditions were not to be found amongst the youth of
every Occidental country ! )

Read, they urged, translations of State Papers written
by Japanese statesmen, peruse the despatches of their
diplomatists, the arguments in their courts of law, the
debates in their Parliament, and one must recognise that
there was a factor wanting in the Japanese intellect, an
element of logic lacking, so that their reasoning could
never be brought into line with that of Occidentals. The
sorry spectacle presented by the attempt at Parliamentary
Government was a sufficient indication of the unfitness of
the Japanese for the most advanced institutions of the

26 THE NEW FAR EAST.

West, at least for many years to come. Party strife
might ruin the country before it had time to grow up to
its new Constitution.

As to the capacity of the Japanese for war, it was
admitted by my opponents that they would certainly
fight well, for they were brave to a fault, and skilful in
the use of arms; but it was a moot point whether their
military organisation, " copied, even to minute details, from
the German model, and thus entirely foreign to their
national spirit," would stand the strain of a war.

Here the objectors were not only wrong in their
surmises, but inaccurate in their "facts." The admirable
organisation of the Japanese army was never slavishly
copied, en bloc, from the German pattern. It was skilfully
adapted to meet Japanese requirements and to suit Japanese
national peculiarities. Accuracy in such matters is hardly
to be expected from the average British civilian in the
Far East, when we consider how little his compatriots at
home know about the organisation of their own naval
and military forces.

Then the objectors turned to my forecast of Japan's
future power at sea. The Japanese, they said, were
plucky, even daring, sailors, and their naval officers were
able to perform routine duties quite creditably, and to
handle their ships, their guns and torpedos, in ordinary
circumstances, but it was more than likely that, without
European supervision, they would lose their heads under
stress of storm, or in the excitement of action.

" Japan defeat China in the long run ! " The thought,
it was said, was preposterous ! Why, China, in spite ol
undoubted official corruption, had a splendid navy and a
large number of troops well armed and drilled on the
Prussian system, with colossal resources in men, material
of war, and money ; and, above all, she enjoyed the
enormous advantage of having in her employ a large
number of capable European and American officers to
train and lead her troops, to take her ships into action,

HOW THE WAR WAS TO END. 27

and to superintend the defence of the strongholds their
science had made impregnable (Port Arthur and Wei-
hai-wei !).

Thus spoke men who were, apparently, in a position
to know the Far East as well as any foreigners could
men who delighted in the beauty and charm of Japan,
who were devoted admirers of its glorious art, who really
liked, almost loved, its people, but who suffered from the
disadvantage of having, unconsciously, allowed the great
wall of racial prejudice to bar their way to the right
understanding of the true Japanese spirit, and of the
possibilities of New Japan.

They were men of light and leading, whose names are
household words amongst Occidentals in the Far East,
and in wider circles at home, yet the prejudice of race
had warped their views had obscured their otherwise
keen sense of observation. Almost every one of their
positive assertions has been either totally contradicted,
or greatly modified, by the stern evidence of subsequent
facts, whilst the predictions of their one opponent are
partly realised, partly on the way to early fulfilment.

If men so intimately connected with Japan erred thus
grossly in their estimate of the powers of her people,
others, who ought to have known China thoroughly, were
quite as much at fault in their forecasts of the issue of
the struggle. Often, during the conflict, did I have to
listen to well-meant, but erroneous, advice from men who
had lived many years in the Flowery Land, urging me
to "look facts in the face." The alleged "facts" that
were brought forward, in order to shake my belief in
Japan's ultimate triumph, were of the kind I have already
indicated in the attempt to depict John Bull's leanings
towards China at the commencement of the war " vast
resources, immense territory, great force of passive resist-
ance, enormous population supplying excellent fighting
material for the numerous Occidental instructors to train
into first-rate soldiers and sailors, boundless staying-power"

28 THE NEW PAR EAST.

all these advantages on the side of the huge Empire
were paraded, time after time, accompanied by loud con-
demnation of Japan, as was only natural on the part of
the red-hot partisans of China. The British public was
supplied with these pro-Chinese arguments, ad nauseam,
one would have thought, and adopted them, at the first
report of hostilities, with wonderful alacrity. The logic
of events soon caused a complete revulsion of British
feeling, but the arguments that were then abandoned had,
at first, been so readily accepted that one cannot but
think there must have been something in, them particularly
agreeable to the average Briton's mind.

This was, indeed, the case. Most of the advantages
claimed for China were identical with those the average
Briton points out as amongst the principal conditions which
render his own Empire invincible. For this reason, if for
no others, the people of Britain were predisposed to wish
success to the Chinese arms. The utter collapse of the
huge nation with the "vast resources, unlimited staying-
power," and so forth, could not but provide food for un-
pleasant reflection to the people, and their name is Legion,
who relied and, it is to be feared, still rely on those
very conditions of magnitude of population, of territory,
and of accumulated wealth, to make up for the lack of
preparation for war. One of the most important perhaps
the most important of the many lessons to be derived
by the English-speaking nations from the victory of Japan
is the practical demonstration of the inability of un-
prepared, untrained, unmilitary millions to cope with
forces vastly inferior in numbers, but organised, trained,
and equipped to perfection, and ready at a given signal
to utilise the warlike spirit with which they are imbued.

The complete success of the Japanese showed once
more that in modern warfare events move in such rapid
sequence that the unready nation, however numerous,
however rich, cannot bring its resources into play before
the conqueror, following up his first success by a quick

WHAT WAS THE WAR ABOUT? 29

repetition of well-directed blows, has got his iron heel on
his foe's neck. The thoughtful on both sides of the Atlantic
may have noted the lesson ; the bulk of the English-speaking
races did not heed it. The unreadiness of the land forces
of the great North American Republic at the outset of
the war with Spain plainly indicated that the lesson of
the Far Eastern conflict was not sufficiently appreciated in
the United States. The truth inculcated by that lesson
had been realised twenty years previously by the statesmen
of Japan. They set to work in their usual thorough fashion,
and they had their reward when their nation of forty-two
millions broke the power of their huge neighbour, the
nation of nearly four hundred millions almost a third of
the population of the globe, according to some statisticians
and humbled its pride in the dust.

The British public, misled by untrustworthy guides, was
not only wrong in its estimate of the relative strength ot
the contending Empires of the Far East, it was completely
mistaken as to the real causes that had brought on the
conflict. In the early days of the war, perplexed citizens
asked one another on that morning journey office-wards
which is the busy Briton's chief opportunity of discussing,
newspaper in hand, the grave problems of international
politics " what all the trouble in the Far East was
about ? " The invariable answer came from that usually
dogmatic, and often dangerous, guide, the Well-informed
Person. From his coign of vantage in the corner-seat of
the railway compartment, the tram-car, or the omnibus
the Well - informed One spoke : " Oh 1 It's all about
Korea. Japan wants to rule over Korea, and China,
whose tributary Korea is, has a prior claim. So the
Japanese are going to fight the Chinese about it, and are
sure to be beaten in the end."

The Well-informed Person was superficially right, but
radically wrong. The dispute about the right to send
troops into Korea, in order to put an end to the civil war
which was devastating that distressful country the Japanese

3 o THE NEW FAR EAST.

complaining that China had broken the Convention ot
Tientsin, made with her in May, 1885, by not giving
sufficiently timely notice of her military action this was,
indeed, the nominal cause of the war, but it was a mere
pretext for the commencement of hostilities. History
teaches us that nearly all the great wars which have
shaped the destinies of nations arose, apparently, from
petty international squabbles that any two men, possessing
an average amount of common-sense, could have settled
satisfactorily in an hour or two, but that the real causes
of the struggles that have rent humanity lie much deeper.
The world notes, and remembers, the trivial pretext. A
monarch's hasty word, the whim of a royal mistress,
a statesman's blunder, an admiral's high-handed action,
an agitator's lurid speech, the momentary fury of a riotous
mob, a square yard of parti-coloured bunting hoisted on
a negro chief's hut, the exclusive right to sell poisonous
potato-spirit and cheap muskets to the inhabitants of some
square miles of pestilential swamp these, and a score
of other futile reasons, are the causes the schoolboy is
taught to consider as sufficiently accounting for inter-
national slaughter on a grand scale. The real, deep-
rooted causes of the struggles between nations remain
hidden to the eyes of the majority, or, if disclosed, are
soon overlooked.

The great duel between France and Germany, in 1870-71,
had for its ostensible reason a dispute of a purely dynastic
character. The throne of Spain was vacant ; a German
princeling had applied for the situation not an unusual
proceeding on the part of one of a class that has provided
occupants for many vacant thrones Napoleon III. objected
to the candidature ; it was reluctantly withdrawn ; sharp
notes were exchanged between Paris and Berlin ; the King
of Prussia, at Ems, turned his back on the importunate
French Ambassador, and the two greatest nations of
Continental Europe Hew at each other's throats. Ye 1 ;
we know that the titanic struggle would have taken

SOME SURMISES. 31

place, sooner or later, even had there been no Hohen-
zollern Prince on the look-out for a crown, and no vacant
throne of Spain for him to aspire to. The German
Empire had to be built up, and " blood and iron " were to
cement and support its foundations. The Second French
Empire was tottering from internal corruption a war, if
successful, appeared to be its last chance, and the die
had to be cast.

Even so was it with China and Japan. Had there
been no civil strife raging in Korea, and endangering
the important commercial interests Japanese intelligence,
industry, and energy had created in that country ; had
China not sent the troops asked for by the Korean King
to keep him on his shaky throne ; had such a state as
Korea never existed, the struggle between China and
Japan would still have taken place, sooner or later, and
the result would have been the same.

Many, and widely divergent, are the other reasons that
have been alleged for the conflict in the Far East reasons
ranging from such a magnificently vast scheme as the
contemplated annexation of the whole Chinese Empire,
sans phrase, by Japan, to the paltry, childish desire,
attributed to the Japanese, to see how their new and
expensive toys their spick-and-span cruisers, their great
Armstrong and Canet guns, their torpedos, their quick-
firing ordnance, and their long-range rifles would work in
actual warfare ; in fact, an infantile craving to " see the
wheels go round." Between these two extremes lay
various less fantastic, or less puerile, surmises. The one
that was most generally accepted, and still counts numerous
supporters, found the cause of the conflict in the alleged
embarrassments of the Japanese Cabinet, seeking in a
desperate warlike venture abroad relief from an intolerable
political crisis at home, just as Occidental governments
had done, time after time, when confronted by an unruly
legislature, or a populace on the verge of revolution. The
sorry spectacle presented, just before the war, by the

32 THE NEW FAR EAST.

brand-new Japanese Parliament, rife with disorderly
"scenes" although these never approached in violence
the scandalous riots that have disgraced the French
Chamber of Deputies, the House of Representatives at
Washington, or that legislative bear-garden, the Austrian
Reichsrath certainly lent an air of probability to this
allegation.

The truth is that the struggle for which both the
Empires had been preparing, each in its own characteristic
way, for years, was inevitable. China had, long ago,
determined to seek the first favourable opportunity of
reducing Japan, the "Upstart Nation of Dwarfs," as she
called her, to that condition of vassalage Chinese tradition
had assigned as Japan's proper position. The Chinese
official classes, blind votaries of stagnation, gloated over
the disastrous fate in store for "the Dwarfs" who had,
in their opinion, turned traitors to the Yellow Race, those
" Monkeys " who strutted about in Western dress, and
who had the audacity to prosper in their imitation of the
ways of the hated " Western Foreign Devils." As far
back as 1882, the famous Li Hung-chang had memorialised
the Throne, advising the postponement of the invasion of
Japan, the plan for which the Emperor had "graciously
ordered him to prepare," until the Chinese navy could be
brought to a high condition of strength and efficiency,
"meanwhile," wrote the wily old Viceroy, "carefully con-
cealing our object" until a convenient opportunity of
"bringing about a rupture with Japan." Whilst biding
her time, China carried on, for years, without intermission,
a war of needle-pricks against Japan, slighting, baffling,
snubbing the Power which had set the whole Yellow Race
the shockingly subversive example of reform and progress,
and which had lit a torch the rays of which might some
day shine across the sea and dazzle the hordes of sluggish
Celestials.

The knowledge of China's malevolent intentions, the
accumulated resentment of years at various times re-

THE TRUTH. 33

pressed, with the greatest difficulty, by wise statesmen
awaiting the right moment for action these were, un-
doubtedly, potent factors in causing Japan to draw the
sword against China. Another strong incentive lay in
the necessity for Japan, a thickly - populated country,
mountainous and narrow, of finding a ready market in
China for the products of her rapidly-rising industries,
that give employment to those whom agriculture or the
fisheries cannot support. The Treaty of Peace of Shimo-
noseki (1895) opened new ports in China to the trade
of the victorious Japanese, but also, owing to the opera-
tion of the Most-Favoured-Nation Clause in the various
treaties with China, to the trade of the world a fact too
often ignored by Occidentals when considering the results
of the war.

Of the manifold influences which were at work to
impel the Japanese towards the struggle, none was more
important than the necessity, often painfully impressed on
Japanese statesmen, of convincing the fiery spirits amongst
the Shi-zoku,* and especially those of the great fighting
Clan of feudal times, the men of Satsuma, that the new
civilisation had not emasculated the race. The war con-
clusively proved to them, and to the thousands whose
hearts still hankered, in secret, after the old order of
things, that Western science and foreign ways had not,
as they feared, diminished the true Spirit of Old Japan.
The old "Yamato Damashi-i" burnt as brightly as ever
in Japanese hearts. The Japanese sword was still keen,
the Japanese arm still strong, the Japanese heart still
fearless. All was well with Japan ; the new civilisation
had not tarnished her honour. It had added lustre to her
glory. Henceforward the new civilisation would have no
opponents, would cause no regrets.

The wise men who guided the destinies of Japan fore-
saw what a war, which they knew must be successful,

* Formerly called Samurai; the Gentry, who formed the governing and
military class in Old Japan.
D

34 THE NEW FAR EAST.

would mean 4 as regards their country's position in the
world. With that quick, sharp perception of what is
insincere that is peculiarly their own, they had seen
through the sham of Occidental international ethics. For
thirty years the West had been urging the Japanese on-
ward in their adaptation of Occidental civilisation, ever
replying to their claim to be treated as equals : " Not
yet ! Go on building railways, erect more schools, establish
new hospitals. Study, work, trade, become learned, peace-
ful, rich in one word, a civilised nation and we will
admit you willingly into our midst on an equal footing."

The Japanese took the advice to heart. They built
railways in every direction, established a national educa-
tional system second to none, opened hospitals that aroused
the admiration of foreign medical men ; they studied, they
worked, they traded ; the nation became well-educated,
peaceful, and wonderfully prosperous. But all this was of
no avail. Until Britain, to her everlasting honour, gave
the others a noble lead by the Treaty Revision whioh
admitted Japan into the comity of nations as an equal,
the Powers had continued to treat her like an interest-
ing, clever child, not to be taken seriously for a moment.
Japan went to war, she conquered by land and sea, and
hey, presto ! the scene changed. The great, civilised
Christian Powers stood in a line, bowing courteously to the
victor and exclaiming in unison : " Here is a nation that
has cruisers and guns, and torpedos and long-range rifles,
and that knows how to use them so as to kill a great number
of people with small loss to herself. Truly, this is a great
nation and one worthy of our respect ! "

In a few months, " frivolous, superficial, grotesquely
imitative, little Japan" had become "the predominant
factor in the Far East" "a nation to be reckoned with
in all future international combinations affecting Eastern
Asia" "a rising naval Power," and "the modern Jack
the Giant-Killer." The statesmen and the warriors of
Japan smiled grimly as they noted the complete success

THE NEW JAPAN. 35

of their efforts to prove Japan a nation. They had
rightly gauged the relative value of the triumphs of peace
and of those of war in the estimation of the great Powers
of the West. Governments that had, in the past, treated
Japan with scant courtesy now seriously considered the
question of an alliance with her. Other Great Powers
paid her the almost equally great compliment of looking
upon her as a dangerous rival, and formed a monstrous,
unnatural coalition for the purpose of coercing her. Friends
and foes alike had begun to grasp the changed situation.
The New Far East was born.

Those British statesmen who, of all people, should
have foreseen its birth, and the circumstances surrounding
it, were either totally misinformed, or did not sufficiently
believe in the little knowledge they had to base a firm,
consistent policy on it. In the following pages an attempt
will be made to impart a knowledge of the truth about
the New Far East in some of its principal aspects, especially
those in which the nations of the West, and particularly
the English-speaking peoples, are the most interested.

The knowledge I shall strive to impart will, I hope,
facilitate the appreciation of the enormously important
problems now being worked out in Eastern Asia. I trust
the information thus conveyed will throw r some light on
the conditions under which many millions of our fellow
men live, the spirit which moves them, and their relations
with Occidental nations.

Thus may the Reader, I sincerely hope, be placed in
a position to form a sound judgment in the matter, and to
contribute a valuable share to a public opinion based not,
as too often, on ignorance, passion, and prejudice, but on
knowledge, justice, and common-sense.

CHAPTER IL
PARTING, PIGTAIL, AND TOPKNOT.

THE wayward climate of the British Isles plays strange
pranks. To compensate for blizzards in June, it occa-
sionally vouchsafes us a few days of sunshine in November.
This was the case on the southern and western coasts of
England in the first week of November, 1893. The
brilliancy of the sun's rays, glistening on the blue waters
of Plymouth Sound, phenomenally calm for the time of
the year, seemed to the good people of the Three Towns
in the nature of a special compliment to the brave tars
from far Japan sojourning in their midst, the officers
and crew of His Imperial Japanese Majesty's ship
Yoshino* lying off Plymouth. I have good cause to re-
member those sunny days, when our English November
assumed, for the nonce, the brightness and crispness of
the atmosphere of Japan at the same season, for I was,
during that glorious week, enjoying the delightful hos-
pitality of my friend Captain Y. Kawara, who had recently
relinquished his position as Naval Attache to the Imperial
Japanese Legation in London on his appointment to the
command of the Yoshino, at that time the swiftest cruiser
in the world. Every moment spent on board of that
splendid warship was full of interest, not only to the
naval student, who saw in her the combination, in the
highest degree, of all the qualities required in the ideal

* Yoshino is the name of a mountainous tract in Yamato, celebrated
in Japanese history and poetry, and renowned for its cherry-trees, whose
delicate, pale pink blossoms are a vision of beauty in late April.

A SHIPS COMPANY OI< ARTISTS. 37

first-class cruiser of the period, but also to the civilian
observer.

The ship was the latest expression of what Elswick
could do. No vessel had ever left that celebrated Tyneside
" Cradle of Fleets " accompanied by greater hopes of good
service, and the splendid work done, in the war with
China, by the Yoshino fully realised the anticipations of
her well-wishers. But the men who had navigated her
from the Tyne to Plymouth, and who, but a few months
later brought glory to her flag the men were the greatest
of the many wonders of the Yoshino. Of their skill and
daring as seamen, of their capacity in the management ot
complicated machinery and of accurately stoked furnaces,
of their excellence as gunners and as torpedo-men, their
courage and their coolness under fire, I need not speak ;
they are writ large in the history of the war. What was
most noticeable at Plymouth was their exemplary conduct,
afloat and ashore. The courteous, polished gentlemen
under whose orders they served had good reason to feel
proud of their crew, whose gentle manners and polite
speech won golden opinions from all who came in contact
with them during their stay in English waters. "A ship's
company of gentlemen ! " was the expression heard on all
sides, and one might add : " a ship's company of artists,"
for, on the third of November, when the Birthday of His
Imperial Majesty was celebrated on board with all the
pomp and solemnity for which the deck of a great war-
ship offers such fitting surroundings, the Yoshino was the
scene of an exhibition of works of art, made by her crew,
entirely out of the ship's stores (all duly restored, un-
injured, to their respective uses on the morrow). All the
innate artistic feeling, the wonderful manual dexterity, the
exquisitely delicate touch, the eye for colour, the imitative
skill, the sly sense of humour, which are such truly
Japanese characteristics, had been brought to bear on
the objects formed by the deft fingers, hardened though
they were by the seaman's or the stoker's rough work,

38 THE NEW FAR EAST.

out of such unpromising materials as rope's-ends and
spun-yarn, coloured paper and bunting, engineers' span-
ners and carpenters' chisels, and even cooking utensils from
the galley, coloured rice, split peas, and strings of onions !

On the day after this celebration of the Emperor's
Birthday, towards six o'clock in the evening, the Yos hinds
trim steam-pinnace rose and fell gently on the wavelets
off Barbican Pier, in Plymouth Harbour, waiting for the
"liberty men" who had been given their last run on
shore on the eve of the ship's departure for Portland Bay,
where she was to make trial of her torpedo armament
before sailing for Japan. I had been spending the after-
noon on shore with a party of the officers, and, as we
took our seats in the stern-sheets of the pinnace, I
expressed to one of them the hope that all the men
would reach the Pier by the appointed time, six o'clock.
"Our men are very punctual," he said, with a quiet smile,
pointing to the group, increasing every moment, of sturdy
little brown sailors, assembling in silence on the quay.
Presently they began to drop into the boat, one by one,
each man carrying a small bundle, wrapped in a gay
coloured handkerchief; bundles neatly made up as only
Japanese bundles are, and containing the little keepsakes
they had amassed on shore photographs of local views,
cigars, little odds and ends, chiefly small domestic labour-
saving appliances, hair-oil, brushes, maps of England, in
many cases books, especially illustrated guide-books, and
in more than one bundle tokens of affection, a hand-
kerchief or a portrait, testifying to sympathetic relations
established with some bright-eyed daughter of the West
Country.

Six o'clock boomed from the great clock on shore, and
the Chief Petty Officer in charge of the "liberty men"
began to call the roll. Smartly the men answered to
their names, and when the forty, or thereabout, had
signified their presence, the report was quietly made :
" All present 1" The officer by my side smiled again,

A PROBLEM, 39

and, as the order was given to "shove off," he gave me
a look of justifiable pride. I congratulated him sincerely,
for visions arose before me of far different scenes wit-
nessed at the embarkation of " liberty men " of other,
and older, navies, visions of hulking, six-foot Finns, furiously
drunk, fighting desperately with whole squads of local
policemen, bringing them by main force to the boat in
which a calm Russian officer stood, with a steely gleam
in his eyes foretelling cmel punishment for the unruly on
the Tsar's ship. My mind recalled other sad scenes of
a similar nature ; men of almost every nation under the
sun, clad in the uniform of Uncle Sam's navy, brought,
helplessly intoxicated, back to their "total abstinence"
ships ; and French man-of-war's men, hardy fishermen from
the Brittany coasts, making night hideous with drunken
uproar, tumbling into the cutter that was to convey them
to the tender mercies of the Capitaine d'Armes. And I
thought of the anxious Master-at-Arms on board many a
Queen's ship, making ready the heavy list of " leave-
breakers," which is still too often the sequel to a "run
on shore."

As the steam-pinnace sped along on her way to the
Yoshino, I noticed a certain measure of subdued excite-
ment amongst the Bluejackets. A general and animated
conversation was being carried on in low tones, and I
could, now and then, hear my name whispered. At last,
the Chief Petty Officer evidently gave his assent to some-
thing that was submitted for his approval, and a bright-
eyed young Able Seaman, who had evidently been deputed
to act as spokesman, addressed me, saluting : " Sen-sei
San* ! My shipmates and 1, being sore perplexed, respect-

* Sen-sei San, a title of respect used in addressing a scholar, a physician,
or an elderly man. Frequently employed by Japanese in speaking to a
foreigner in respectful terms. It may be translated : " Mr. Teacher," or
"Professor." San is the colloquial contraction of Saina, the usual title of
respect ; it is affixed to names of persons of both sexes, to nouns indicating
rank or calling, and is used in ^peaking respectfully even of animals.

40 THE NEW FAR EAST.

v

fully beg for your august advice. All the people on shore
have been very kind to us, and for this we humbly return
thanks ; but one class of the shore-going folk, although
they probably meant well, have greatly offended us. The
people in the back-streets near the Dockyard, especially
the boys, pointed at us as we passed, calling after us :
' Hallo 1 John Chinaman 1 ' and ' Chin-chin, Chinaman ! '
Now, we respectfully request that you will condescend to
advise us in this matter. How are we that is, those of
us who cannot speak English to make the people of the
next port we put into understand that we are not 70-
jin* ?" There was a contemptuous ring in his voice as he
spoke the word To-jin, that meant much to one who
knew the state of tension in the Far East, where such
great events were soon to take place. The young Blue-
jacket saluted again and awaited my answer. It was
brief. I said : " Boshi-wo tort ! " (" Take your caps
off!").

In a moment every cap was doffed, and a quick look of
intelligence lit up the Bluejackets' eyes as they saw one
another's polls, those luxuriant heads of coarse, absolutely
black, hair, cut to regulation shortness ; in some cases
clipped so close to the head as to give the appearance
of a skull-cap of black velvet, but, in most instances,
carefully brushed and combed on either side of a well-
defined parting, redolent of hair-oil, "Florida water," and
other toilet luxuries with which the Bluejacket of every
nation anoints his locks preparatory to a "run on shore."
The long breath, causing a sound resembling a sigh, the
Japanese take when they have just heard something which
appeals strongly to their feelings, or to their sense of
reason, was distinctly audible, and showed that my sug-
gestion was a happy one.f The Bluejackets evidently

* To-jin, Chinamen. Europeans and Americans are sometimes called,
by the populace, Ke-To-jin, "Hairy" (or "Bearded") Chinamen.

f This sound must not be confounded with the long in-drawing of the breath
that accompanies the low Japanese bow, as a mark of deepest respect.

A SOLUTION. 41

considered I had hit upon the readiest means of imme-
diately distinguishing between the Chinese and the other
members of the Turanian races of Eastern Asia. The
Chinaman's shaven pate and the long plait of hair hanging
down his back or coiled, turban-wise, round his head, for
convenience during physical exertion are the most notice-
able, unvarying badges of his nationality. The most
ignorant loafer in the purlieus of an European sea-port,
the wildest urchin of its back-streets, knows that the
"pigtail" is the distinctive mark of the native of the
Flowery Land.

The national mode of wearing the hair is, indeed,
strikingly different amongst the Yellow Peoples of the
New Far East, and is, in some respects, typical of their
mental characteristics. Let us consider the appearance of
three typical yellow men a Japanese, a Chinese, and a
Korean all three in the prime of early manhood, between
twenty and thirty years of age, and chosen from the
ruling classes of their respective nations. The Japanese
is one of the Shi-zoku, the Military Class, formerly called
Samurai, and also Bu-ke, who had a monopoly of the
Bum-bu-no Michi, "the Arts of Literature and of War," in
Old Japan's feudal times, and who govern New Japan.
The abolition, in 1871, of the feudal system, and of the
privileges and immunities enjoyed by the Samurai, the
wearers of two swords, brought with it the removal of
the disabilities, amounting almost to a denial of all
political rights, under which the bulk of the Japanese
people, those below the Military Class in rank, suffered.
All Japanese became equal before the law, but the
governing power remained, virtually, in the same hands,
and to this day the vast majority of the administrative
offices, the naval and military commissions, the judicial
and educational appointments, are held by Shi-zoku, men
of the old gentry of Japan.

The Chinese whom we will consider as a type of the
teeming millions of the Middle Empire also belongs to a

42 THE NEW FAR EAST.

ruling class ; however his character may differ in par-
ticular points from that of his compatriot of the masses,
the leading features are the same. He is what Occidentals,
clinging to the old Portuguese designation, call a " Man-
darin," one of the " Literati," the men who, by dint of
infinite mental labour, have passed a severe competitive
examination in classical knowledge, perfectly useless, from
our Western point of view, and have gained degrees which
alone entitle to appointments in the public service. In
principle, this system of open competitive examination as
the sole road to the Civil Service of China is purely
democratic. With the exception of a few classes of per-
sons those convicted of crime against the State, actors,
executioners and others who inflict punishment ordered
by the law, undertakers, waiters, and body-servants
and their descendants unto the fourth generation,
every male Chinese subject may present himself for ex-
amination as often as he pleases, unless debarred there-
from in consequence of malpractices at a former attempt.*
Chinese history, even in quite recent times, is full of
instances of men, born of very poor and obscure parents,
rising to the highest posts in the State ; but the fact
remains that, in China as in every other country, trie
candidate whose wealth enables him to obtain the assist-
ance of a skilled tutor the "coach" and the "crammer"
have flourished for centuries in Far Cathay enters the
Examination Hall with many chances in his favour. Such
as his studies of fossilised classics, and the conditions of
his service, have made him, the Mandarin is China.
Without his active co-operation, or, at least, his goodwill,
nothing can ever be brought to a successful issue in the

* Barbers and their sons were, until recent times, included amongst
those debarred from competing. This disability was removed by the Emperor
on the representations of the Governor of Cheh-Kiang, who was induced
by the powerful Barbers' Guild to plead their cause. Trades' Unions have
flourished in China from time immemorial. This is but one instance of
their wide-spreading influence in our days.

THE THREE 'YELLOW RACES. 43

Middle Empire. Hence the Mandarin is pre-eminently
the Chinese whose character it behoves us to study
if we would fathom the great problems of the Far
East.

The Korean who is to serve as a type of the ruling
class of his country is a Yang-ban, as those are colloqui-
ally termed who belong to the Nyang-pan, the "Two
Orders," Civil and Military, forming the aristocracy that
holds' the people of Korea enthralled. The social fabric
of Korea has experienced a succession of rude shocks of
late years, since the regeneration of the decrepit " Hermit
Kingdom," now raised to the brevet rank of a pinchbeck
"Empire," was undertaken .by powerful neighbours and
interested "friends" from far beyond the seas; but the
one thing that has remained practically unshaken is the
ascendancy of the Yang-ban, the aristocracy of birth,
originally an aristocracy of office, who hold every govern-
ment post of any importance and, with rare exceptions,
use their predominant position to "grind the faces" of
the wretchedly poor, down-trodden masses.

A glance at the three men before us satisfies us as to
their racial affinity. Differing considerably in minor points,
their faces yet present a marked family likeness. Although
the colour of the face varies remarkably in individuals of
the same race in Japan, in China, and in Korea, running
through the whole scale of tints, from a clear waxen
complexion, often with rosy cheeks in childhood and in
adolescence, to a coppery brown according to the district
and, still more, to the amount of exposure to the weather
rendered necessary by the individual's occupation the
ground-colour is always of a yellowish hue. So striking
is this peculiarity to Western eyes that we, the White
(or should it not rather be the Pale Pink ?) Folk, dub
our fellow men of the Far East "the Yellow Races."
In stature and in build Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans
differ greatly. The Japanese are, with notable exceptions,
a small-sized race, the average height of the men

44 THE NEW FAR EAST.

5.02 feet being about the same as the average stature of
European females, and that of the women proportionately
less. To define the stature and build of the Chinese
nation is rendered very difficult by the fact of the great
difference in this respect, and in the matter of colour, and
of several mental characteristics as well, between the
natives of Northern and of Southern China. The people
to the north of Shanghai are, speaking generally, much
taller and of heavier build than the natives of the
Southern Provinces. Many of the Northern Chinese are
fine specimens of well-developed humanity ; some of them
would be noticeable amongst the tall men of Northern
Europe and the long-limbed North Americans and Aus-
tralians, with the advantage of heavier build than is
usually found amongst the two races last mentioned.
The stately bearing and dignified, flowing robes' of the
Northern Chinaman add to the impressiveness of his
appearance, and make him look taller than he really is.
Strangely enough, both in Japan and in China, the natives
of the North are darker than those of the South, a fact
that would seem to indicate descent from different branches
of the great Mongolian parent stock. The Korean is,
often, almost as tall as his cousin of Northern China,
and is well set-up, robust and stately in his demeanour.

The Occidental who comes into contact for the first
time with a number of natives of the Far East generally
experiences some difficulty in identifying individuals,
especially amongst the younger men, whose smooth faces
for beards grow late, and then but sparsely, on Mon-
golian chins seem to his unaccustomed eye as like one
another as buttons on a coat. As soon as more frequent
intercourse with Turanian Orientals has familiarised him
with their appearance, he begins to note the points of
divergence in physical conformation, the differences of
features and of facial expression, which are, however,
undoubtedly not nearly so numerous as between individuals
of the same nationality in Europe or in America, where

A PITFALL FOR JAPANESE! 45

the intermingling of races has been taking place for
centuries to a degree unknown, within historic times,
amongst the exclusive peoples of Eastern Asia. It is a
fact, not, I believe, generally known, that the people of
the Far East, when first coming into communication with
Occidentals, experience the same difficulty in distinguish-
ing one white man from another, except by noticing the
colour of the hair, the trim of the hair worn on the
face, and the colour and cut of the clothes. A Japanese
once told me that in the early days of his intercourse
with foreigners, he experienced the greatest difficulty in
recognising anyone of his Occidental acquaintances who
had made any change in his manner of trimming his
whiskers, or his beard, or who had donned a suit of
clothes in which he had never seen him before. He
failed utterly to trace any difference in features between
smooth-faced men and women, and was thankful, he said,
that the difference of costume was so marked between
the sexes, amongst Occidentals, as to save him from many
an awkward mistake. Fortunately for my Japanese friend,
he has since so largely widened the circle of his Western
acquaintances that, far from being unable to identify them,
he has become quite an expert physiognomist. One
shudders to think of the mistakes of identity he would
have made had he first encountered Occidentals in these
days of "rational" dress for ladies. He would, to a
certainty, have failed to distinguish the New Woman froir
the inferior creature, Man.

Differing notably in stature, in build, in some features,
and especially in facial expression, Japanese, Chinese, and
Koreans all have certain strongly-marked physical charac-
teristics common to the three nations, besides the yellowish
colour already mentioned. Their kinship as members or
the Mongolian branch of the great Turanian race is made
manifest by the shape of their large skulls, with broad,
prominent cheek-bones, so broad and prominent that the
skin is stretched tightly across them, over the almost flat

46 THE NEW FAR EAST.

upper part of the nose, which has hardly any "bridge,"
even those Japanese noses of strikingly aquiline shape, to
be found amongst the upper classes, especially in Kioto
and its neighbourhood, beginning to curve much lower
down than on the " Caucasian," the Semitic, or the
American-Indian face.* But the colour of the skin and
the shape of the skull are not the only marks of race
common to Japanese, Chinese and Koreans. The dark
eyes of all three are set more or less obliquely, making
them appear as if they were slightly turned up at the
outer corners. This peculiarity varies considerably in
degree. In some individuals the eye is so narrow as to
appear like a mere oblique slit ; in others, especially
amongst the Japanese, it is large and full, even prominent,
but in all cases there is a peculiarity that at once arrests
attention, although it is, at first, difficult to define. It
arises from the shape of the rather " puffy " eyelids,
scantily provided with eye-lashes, and having, apparently,
no borders, or only a slight indication of a thickening at the
rims. The "Caucasian" eye-lid has a "hem," the Mongolian
eye-lid has, as a rule, none ; its edge looks as if slit with a
knife in the tightly-stretched skin. This smoothness of
the skin about the eyes accounts, in great measure, for
the mildness of expression in young Mongolian faces. It
is, of course, less noticeable when age has begun to
furrow the countenance with wrinkles, and the relaxation
of the facial muscles causes the eyes to appear sunken,
and, consequently, more nearly approaching to the position
they occupy in the " Caucasian " face.

That a slight obliquity in the set of the eyes is anything
but displeasing to our tastes is easily proved by a glance
at the winsome face of a pretty Japanese girl, the fine,
dignified countenance of a comely Chinese Mandarin (for
there are such), or the handsome features of many a
Korean Yang-ban. We all know the peculiar charm

* I employ the incorrect term "Caucasian" for want of a better one
in general use.

FACIAL CHARACTERISTICS. 47

imparted to the faces of some European and American
women by the possession of piquantly bright eyes "a la
Chinoise." These slightly slanting eyes are not uncommon
in our days ; we have only to look at the portraits of
contemporary beauties by the great English painters of
the eighteenth century to notice that they existed in
many instances, and were evidently admired, at a time
when the craze for everything Chinese had spread from
Paris to London.

I have already alluded to the late appearance and
scanty growth of the Mongolian beard. This applies
also to the hair on the arms, legs, and chest, far less
abundant than in the Western races, and often almost
totally absent. There are, of course, exceptions to this,
as to every rule. Amongst the Japanese we occasionally
find men with heavy beards, giving their owners a most
uncanny appearance in our eyes, accustomed to the sight
of smooth Mongolian faces, and many Japanese grow, in
mature years, very creditable moustaches ; still the fact
remains that such hirsute tendencies are looked upon by
Mongolians themselves as abnormal. The sight of a
Japanese with a heavy beard irresistibly reminds his com-
patriots of the Aino, the hairiest race in the world, the
non-Mongolian people whom the smooth- skinned Japanese
drove northwards when they settled in what is now
Japan.

I have heard Japanese "chaffing" an abnormal fellow-
countryman, "bearded like the pard," by suggesting
that he would, no doubt, soon require a " s<z^/-stick,"
after the fashion of the hairy Aino. The remnants ot
the hairy race, reduced to about fifteen thousand, inhabit
the great northern Island of Yezo, and are gradually
dwindling away, in spite of the humane efforts to re-
generate them by which the Japanese Government seeks
to atone for centuries of harsh domination and cruel
repression. These efforts are mainly directed towards the
protection of the Aino from their chief vice an inordinate

48 THE NEW FAR EAST.

indulgence in deep draughts of sak, the intoxicating
liquor, brewed from rice, which is the national strong
drink of Japan. The luxuriant moustache and beard that
cover the greater part of the Aino's face are a hindrance
to his quaffing the flowing bowl to his heart's content,
the bushy fringe of black hair that surrounds and covers
his lips absorbing a considerable quantity of the precious
liquid, so the ingenious native of Yezo has devised a short
stick, smooth, sometimes curved, and usually lacquered red,
with which, held horizontally, he lifts the overhanging
curtain of hair from his mouth, and thus obtains the full
enjoyment of the whole contents of the wine-cup.

One outward racial peculiarity, striking the observer
at first sight, is common to the people of the three
nations of the Far East the coarse, almost always
straight, generally intensely black hair which grows abun-
dantly on their heads. In the very few cases in which
the hair of a Turanian Oriental is, before age has bleached
it, of any colour but black, great pains are taken to
conceal the abnormity by the use of cosmetics.* Rare cases
have been known of Japanese and of Chinese whose hair
was of a reddish-brown, dark brickdust hue, a freak of
nature they carefully disguised, red hair being associated
in the Far Eastern mind with drunkenness. According
to a legend of Chinese origin, popular in Japan, mythical
beings, called by the Japanese Sho-jo, whose heads are
covered with manes of scarlet hair, exist at the bottom
of the sea, where they hold perpetual drunken carousal
round a huge jar of sake. The red-haired Sho-jo, often
represented in Japanese works of art, may be lured from
their submarine haunts, so the legends tell, by jars of
temptingly placed on the fore-shore, so that when

* Not all Japanese have absolutely black hair. Owing, probably, to a
mixture of races in prehistoric times, many have hair of a very dark
brown colour, softer and finer than the typical Turanian jet-black tresses.
Women whose hair is of this deep brown hue darken it to the blackness
of the raven's wing by the use of pomatum. In China, "Albinos" exist^
with snow-white hair and pink eyes, but the cases are extremely rare..

HAIR-DRESSING IN TPIE EAST. 49

they have partaken of the "free drink" until helplessly
intoxicated, they may easily be captured with a view to
securing their red hair and their blood as materials for
the preparation of a brilliant scarlet dye. Thus does the
practical, utilitarian spirit crop up in the most fantastic
conceptions of the Far Eastern imagination.

In Japanese everyday life the Sho-jo serve a still more
practical purpose they are used as " awful examples " when
parents are impressing on the minds of children the dangers
that lurk in the safa-botile. So typical of the craving for
strong drink have the mythical scarlet-haired beings be-
come, that a species of small fly, which appears to be
very fond of sake, is called Sho-jo. Appert and Kinoshita,
in their valuable and compact little handbook for collectors
of Japanese art-objects, "Ancien Japan" published at Tokio
in 1888, slily hint the suggestion is more likely to have
emanated from the French author, a learned Professor in
the Law College of Tokio, than from his Japanese col-
laborator, the Chief Librarian of the Imperial University
of Japan that the myth of the red-haired topers may
have originated with the first appearance of Anglo-Saxons
on the China seas.

In the rare cases where the Far Eastern hair is not
straight, but has a tendency to be wavy, as much trouble
is taken to smooth the slight curl out of it as is devoted
by Occidental ladies to obtaining just the opposite result.
Hair with a wave, or a "kink," in it is regarded by the
masses, in some parts of Japan, as connected with
immoral ideas, a belief which does not prepossess them
favourably towards the first curly-headed Occidental
whom they meet.

If there be a Philosophy of Clothes, there is in the
Far East, assuredly, a Philosophy of Male Hair-dressing.
The costumes of the three typical men before us do not
differ as widely as their modes of wearing their jet-black
hair. Let us consider their apparel, and we will find
that it is, in all three cases, becoming to their stature,

E

50 THE NEW FAR EAST.

build, and facial type, and that it imparts a certain
stateliness to their bearing, a marked dignity to their
repose.

PARTING.

The dress of the Japanese civilian Shi-zoku, as worn out
of doors in all occupations which do not render the
adoption of European garments necessary or advisable, is
simple in cut, sombre in colour, neat to a degree, and in
excellent taste. The wide-sleeved silken gown, or Kimono,
of some quiet, dark colour, in very narrow vertical stripes
divided by black lines, showing at the breast, where the
left side is crossed over the right, the edge of an under- .
garment of precisely similar cut, perhaps the edges of
two such under-gowns, the one worn next to the body,
the ju-ban (colloquially, ji-baii), usually of plain silk,
these edges of under-robes showing in a manner that re-
calls the superimposed waistcoats of a past generation in
Europe. Over the kimono, the wide hakama, commonly
translated by "trousers," but really a divided skirt, of
sober-coloured silk probably of some bluish-grey tint with
narrow vertical black stripes, strikingly similar to the
"striped Angola trouserings" of the fashionable London
tailors. The obi, or girdle, of thick silk, four yards long
and two and three-quarter inches wide, is smoothly and
evenly wound about the waist. Over all, the haori, or
overcoat, of stiff, black corded silk, tied across the breast
by two silken cords slung in a graceful loop, the back of the
coat, just below the collar, and the sleeves bearing the
wearer's crest, his mon, beautifully embroidered in white
silk within a circle of about the size of a shilling.*

* The haori, "as now worn," reaches to below the knee. Its silk lining,
often costly, is of a well-chosen colour, such as russet-brown or "old gold,"
with a beautiful woven pattern. During the war against China, and imme-
diately after it, linings decorated with representations of victories and
incidents of conspicuous gallantry were very popular in Tokio.

The mon is sometimes worn in five places those mentioned above and

JAPANESE COSTUME. 51

These garments compose a costume which proclaims in
its tasteful simplicity that it is the dress of a gentleman of
refinement. And, indeed, the impression is confirmed by
closer examination ; it is borne out by every outward
sign, from the crown of the hatless head to the small,
well-shaped feet, still free from the painful deformities
caused by the irrational foot-gear of Western civilisation,
and encased in the most comfortable, hygienic covering
imaginable, the soft, strong-soled socks, generally white,
called tabi, which have a separate compartment for the
big toe. This allows the big toe and the one next to
it to have a firm grasp of the thick, padded loop, often
covered with ribbed velvet, blue or grey, that is the
only attachment to the foot of the straw sandal, the zori,
worn in dry weather and for walking on smooth ground,
or of the geta, the wooden clog commonly used to keep
the soles of the feet dry in the very damp climate on
roads which are often rivers of slush. These pattens
add a few inches to the small stature of the Japanese
gentleman, just as the loose cut and wide sleeves, used
as pockets, of his robes and coat add breadth to his
rather narrow shoulders. Had constant physical training
in the naval or military service developed his muscles,
and were he serving with the colours in any capacity,
we would see him in uniform, Japanese officers being
too proud of " the Emperor's coat " to be seen in
public, in their own country, in " mufti " ; but the Shi-
zoku whose appearance we are considering is a civilian,
whose actual military training (for every Japanese is,
theoretically, at least, subject to the law of Universal
Naval or Military Service) has not been long enough to
counteract the evil results of generations of kneeling,

on each breast, but this, as well as the size of the crest, is subject to the
fluctuations of fashion, more numerous in New Japan than at any period
of the nation's history.

The costume here described is modified according to the season, as
will be pointed out later on.

52 THE NEW FAR EAST.

stooping ancestry. The normal Japanese position, equivalent
to our sitting, is a squatting on the heels, practised from
babyhood, which has the one advantage that it keeps
the feet warm in cold weather, but which forces the body
into an unhealthy attitude, and has resulted, in the course
of centuries, in producing the disproportionate figure of
the modern Japanese of the upper classes, the trunk too
long in comparison with the legs, the shoulders too
narrow and the chest too flat. Amongst the working
classes, whose labour entails much standing and walking,
the body is much more symmetrical, and the muscular
development, particularly in the loins and the lower
limbs, is often remarkable, especially in the case of
"coolies," jin-riki-sha drawers, and fishermen.

The Japanese- gentleman has been described as hatless.
Would that this were always true, or that, at all events,
when he feels the necessity of a covering for his head,
lie would wear one of the various shapes of shady, light,
and cool hats, of straw or of split and plaited bamboo,
used in summer by the labouring classes and wayfarers,
the kind most in favour amongst them being an inverted
bowl, or basin, with a light inner rim fitting round the
head, on the principle of the "sun-helmets" used by
Europeans in the tropics, a perfectly rational, hygienic
hat ! Unfortunately, his natural good taste seems to fail
him, unaccountably, at times, and he sees no incongruity
in wearing, with his graceful, dignified, silken costume,
any sort of Western head-gear, from the jaunty " Hom-
burg hat," of grey or brown felt, with a "complimentary
mourning" band, or of straw, with its cleft crown, or
the hard, low-crowned "bowler," to the straw hat of the
Occidental boating-man, and even sad to relate ! to that
abomination of modern Britain the shapeless cloth " stable-
cap," with its peak of the same material, or sometimes,
more hideous still, the double-peaked, ear-flapped, "fore-
and-aft" cap of sad-coloured cloth. If he be not always
hatless, he is certainly without gloves, so that we have an

A CLEAN NATION. 53

opportunity of admiring his small, delicately-formed hands,
with their slender, supple fingers whose pliancy is cul-
tivated, in childhood and youth, by the school-boy habit
of twisting soft paper into tough string whilst poring over
the lesson-book fingers that can deftly handle the writing-
brush or the eating-sticks, and that are kept soft and clean,
with carefully-trimmed nails. Small and well-shaped hands
and feet are characteristic of the Turanian races, but no-
where are they more noticeable than in Japan, where
the roughest labour does not seem to obliterate the good
shape of the extremities. It may seem a matter of small
importance, but a moment's observation of the hands of
the Occidental working-classes, and even, truth to tell, of
many above them in the social scale, will give an idea of
the aesthetic satisfaction to be derived from intercourse
with a nation possessing beautiful hands and, high and
lowly, keeping them perfectly clean.

The Japanese, as a nation, keep their bodies clean, not by
way of devotional ablutions, nor from the hygienic reasons
that drive the Englishman of the upper and middle classes
into the invigorating, but hardly cleansing, matutinal cold
" tub " ; rich and poor alike, they boil themselves for so
it seems to the Occidental, unaccustomed to a bath at a
temperature of about 110 Fahrenheit once, at least, daily,
merely for the personal satisfaction of being clean. All
honour to them for it 1 Would that a similar spirit of
cleanliness could be infused into the millions of Occidentals
(not to speak of the semi-Oriental millions of Russia, "the
Black People," as they are called from their abominable
state of dirt) who are still to be counted amongst "the
Great Unwashed ! " It is not only in the lazy southern
countries that we find this repulsive state of bodily filthi-
ness amongst the bulk of the labouring masses. A walk
through one of our English, or Scottish, manufacturing
towns, or a Welsh village, a peep into an Irish cabin, a
stroll down a back-street within a stone's throw of London's
most fashionable thoroughfares, will reveal horrors of

54 THE NEW PAR EAST.

personal tmcleanliness that sicken the heart. Go into the
thick of a British crowd on a hot day ; the experiment
will not encourage repetition. In a Continental crowd
the effluvia would be still worse. In Japan, you may
mix freely with the throng in the crowded streets in
sultry weather and your olfactory sense will not be
offended. Poorly clad the people may be, in some cases
wearing a minimum of clothing, but patched and mended,
washed out into faded blue, or dusty from travel, as their
scanty clothes may be, they cover bodies that are
scrupulously clean.

The Japanese gentleman's clean, gloveless hand holds
a small and simple fan, of paper and bamboo ; not one
of those garish articles the bad taste of Western purchasers
compels Japanese craftsmen to produce for export by hun-
dreds of thousands annually. No Japanese would cool
himself, or shield his head from the sun's rays (a frequent
use of the fan), with one of the fans too large, too bright,
the design badly printed from a worn-out block that
Occidental ladies use without hesitation, and even exhibit,
as artistic decorations, on the walls of their rooms. The
Shi-zoku's ogi, or folding-fan (not to be confounded with
the uchi-wa, the stiff, non-folding fan, or hand-screen) is
beautifully made of stout mulberry-tree paper, with a fine,
glossy, parchment-like surface, and of carefully - selected
split bamboo ; it is light and very durable, and it closes
with a sharp click testifying to the accuracy with which
its faces are pasted on to the frame. Its decoration is
severely simple ; usually a mere suggestion of clouds, in
pale gold and silver powdering on the colourless surface,
or a delicate little sketch in sepia a scene from classic
literature, or an impression of romantic landscape, frequently
with the addition of a short poem, a ski, or ode in the
Chinese style, or an uta, purely Japanese, written with
consummate art by the brush of some renowned master
of caligraphy. When the fan is not carried in the hand,
it is stuck into the girdle, or into the bosom of the gown.

JAPANESE UMBRELLAS. 55

According to the season, the Japanese gentleman carries
a paper parasol, an umbrella, or a walking-stick. The
paiasol is of purely Japanese design, now too well known
to need description; the umbrella is, sad to tell, more
frequently a local imitation of the most ungainly form of
the cheap Occidental article than one of the light and
graceful umbrellas of oiled paper and split bamboo still
used by the masses. These purely Japanese umbrellas,
that add a luminous touch of colour to many a village
scene, the sun shining through their oiled paper surface
as they rest before the houses, spread out to dry after a
shower, are being gradually superseded by the imitation
of the heavier, clumsy, but more durable, European pattern.*
Japan is the gainer thereby, industrially and financially,
her umbrellas made in the Western style, of silk, and,
more generally, of cotton, being exported by hundreds of
thousands to all parts of Asia, especially to China and
to India, at such low, though remunerative, prices that
they have virtually driven the British and the German
article from the market. As for the Japanese paper
parasol, it is exported to Europe and to America in very
considerable quantities (although India is by far the largest
buyer, China coming next). A Japanese writer on the
Foreign Trade of his country tersely states that the
demand in Western lands arises from the fact that in
those parts "the parasol is used to adorn the front of
stoves." How the Japanese sense of incongruity is tickled
at the sight of the unexpected uses to which Occidentals
put certain Far Eastern wares may be imagined if we
reflect on the number of parasols, made in Japan, covering

* The Japanese umbrella is called Kasa, the same word being used to
designate the Japanese hat, which resembles the native umbrella in shape.
The umbrella constructed on the Occidental principle is called Komori-gasa,
" bat -umbrella," from the analogy of its structure to that of the bat's wing,
which is said to have also served as the prototype of the ogi, or folding-fan.
The Japanese parasol is called hi-gasa, "sun-umbrella." It will be remarked
that, by the operation of the Japanese etymological rule called Nigori, the
k of hasa in the latter part of compound words softens into g.

56 THE NEW FAR EAST.

the yawning gaps of British fire-places every summer,
the innumerable safo-ciips and handle-less tea-cups used
as smokers' ash-trays, or as pin-trays on ladies' dressing-
tables, the tsuba, or sword-guards, converted into Menu-
stands, and the whisks of split bamboo, originally intended
to make the powdered tea froth in the solemn and aesthetic
rites of the ceremonial tea-drinking the cha-no-yu, still
practised by the devotees of art and of antiquities sent
by thousands to America and to British dependencies to
be twirled in mixing the ingredients of the seductive
" cocktail."

If the Japanese gentleman carry a walking-stick a
fashion increasingly prevalent it will be of one of the
numerous ornamental woods of the country, of rattan, or,
more probably, of smooth, glossy bamboo, cunningly carved
by one of those modest craftsmen whose work preserves
to this day many of the best features of the glorious art
of Old Japan. The same sober taste, the same delicate
fancy, the feeling for appropriate decoration, the marvellous
manual dexterity, are all manifested in every adjunct to
the Shi-zoku's costume. The short pipe (kiseni), all of
metal delicately chased and inlaid, or with bamboo stem
and metal bowl and mouthpiece, that hangs on his right
hip, in a case attached to a tobacco-pouch, is a dainty
thing, its diminutive size pleading for moderation, for its
bowl, scarcely larger than the cup of an acorn, holds only
a tiny pellet of the golden-hued, or light brown, silky
tobacco, cut to the fineness of human hair, and even
much finer, and affords but three whiffs. The tobacco-
pouch (tabako-ire), which may be of any suitable material,
is a work of art, alike by reason of its simple shape, its
fitness for its purpose, and its tasteful decoration.

As to the netsuk y the toggle that keeps pipe-case
and pouch fastened to the girdle by means of the silken
cord that runs through it, has it not conquered the whole
artistic world ? For from St. Petersburg to Sydney, and
from San Francisco to Budapest, art-lovers bend admiringly

THE JAPANESE PIPE. 57

over drawers and trays full of these exquisite little carvings,
these " masterpieces in miniature," a collection of which forms
an epitome of Japanese taste and patient skill, of the flora
and fauna, the customs and the folk-lore, the poetry and
the humour, the history and the superstitions of the Far
East. Nowadays, the pipe and the pouch are often left
at home ; a case, equally artistic in design, filled with
Japanese cigarettes, is carried instead, and the number of
Japanese of the upper classes who do not, as they say,
"drink tobacco" is increasing, some of their plrysicians
having inveighed strongly against smoking.

The bulk of the nation, however, are still confirmed
votaries of the small-bowled pipe, which is enjoyed by
both sexes, and complaints are rife in the Japanese press
that smoking is becoming increasingly prevalent amongst
the boys attending the Elementary and the Secondary, or
Middle, Schools. It is urged that the introduction of
cheap cigarettes of native manufacture is responsible for
this, as they render indulgence in the habit easier for the
boys, and more difficult for the teachers to detect, avoiding
the first cost, intrinsically small, but still considerable for
the average Japanese boy to defray, of the pipe, its case,
and the tobacco-pouch, such paraphernalia offering, Besides,
greater chances of detection and confiscation. Smoking,
which has become such a thoroughly national habit, was
introduced into Japan by the Portuguese about 1600. It
was, at first, prohibited, under the most severe penalties,
by the Government, but its attractions prevailed over the
fear of punishment. People indulged in it by stealth,
after the fashion of modern schoolboys, grave adults
hiding under the arches of bridges to snatch the fearful
delight of a whiff of the foreign herb, whose name, tabako,
is one of the astonishingly few words of European origin
adopted by the Japanese after more than fifty years of
active intercourse with the Portuguese and the Spaniards
in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, a period in
which Christianity had spread into every part of the

58 THE NEW PAR EAST.

Empire and numbered a million of converts. The fascina-
tion of tobacco ultimately proved too strong for the
authorities to counteract ; they withdrew the prohibition,
cautiously and gradually, permitting, in 1651, smoking out-
of-doors, and ultimately removing all restrictions.

In Old Japan, that is prior to the Great Change in
1868, the Samurai carried, hanging from his girdle, besides
the pipe in its case and the tobacco-pouch, another product
of native art-work which has been pronounced by some
eminent experts to illustrate the combination of all the
best qualities of Japanese art in their most complete ex-
pression. This was the i?i-rd, a nest of little compartments,
elliptical in shape, fitting one on top of the other with
the most accurate nicety, the whole set, with its lid, con-
nected by a cord, or cords, and forming a small, more or
less flattened, cylinder, slung from the girdle in the same
manner as the pipe-case and pouch, the cord running
through a carved netsukt, or toggle, which, once passed
through the girdle, prevented the cord, and its appendages,
from slipping out. The in-ro was, generally, of thin wood,
lacquered and decorated ; and it may be truly said that
on no other article for personal use have the Japanese
bestowed adornment with more loving care, with more
exquisite taste, or with greater technical skill. Hence the
value of the in-ro in the eyes of the art-collector all over
the world. The dainty little compartments of this constant
companion of the Samurai contained various medicines
an emetic, a styptic, the latter of great utility in days
when every gentleman wore two swords, keen as razors,
and an angry word was often followed by a sweeping cut
and it is, therefore, generally described as a "medicine-
box." It was really, as its name implies, a "seal-box"
as much as a medicine-case ; for, besides specifics, and,
sometimes, some perfume in solid form, it contained the
owner's seal, or in, and the vermilion colouring - matter
for the impression, the seal in the Far East being really
a stamp. Throughout the East, both Far and Near, the

THE JAPANESE POCKET-BOOK. 59

seal, or stamp, is of great importance, binding its owner
legally, as a signature does in the West. Hence the
necessity for carrying it constantly about the person.

The Shi-zoku of the present time has his seal always
with him, engraved, as in days of yore, with his name
in the simple, archaic Chinese ideograms used throughout
the Far East for seals, for inscriptions on monuments, and
for decorative purposes ; and he also carries the vermilion
colouring -matter, in a little, flat, round box, made, like
the seal, generally of ivory, but they are no longer encased
in an in-ro. They are kept in an oblong pocket-book, or
kami-irt, if that may be called a "pocket-book" which
is carried by a man who has no pockets, in our sense of
the word. The capacious recesses of his wide sleeves and
the bosom of his kimono serve the Shi-zoku as pockets,
but the kami-irt is, usually, securely placed between the
girdle and the gown, in front. It is a strong, serviceable
article, of embossed leather, of strong silken brocade, or
of one of those wonderful paper imitations of leather, or
of crape, in which the Japanese excel. Whatever its
material, its decoration is, to a certainty, appropriate and
artistic, and its tiny metal clasp, probably, a thing of
beauty.

This pocket-book contains not only the seal and colour-
ing-matter and, as its name, kami-ir6, "paper-wallet,"
implies, a flattened roll of soft, smooth, thin, but strong
paper it also holds medicine, not, however, of the kind
that was carried in the in-ro of days gone by. In the
compartments of that dainty little work of art were to be
found, besides the ordinary, and usually efficient, emetic
and styptic, some of the choicest remedies of that fantastic
pharmacopoeia, borrowed, with its system of medicine, by
Old Japan from Older China. To find parallels to the
ingredients composing these marvellous remedies, still
deemed infallible by millions of the modem Chinese and
Koreans, we must go back to the gruesome recipes bt
mediaeval Europe. Of the four hundred and forty-two

60 THE NEW PAR EAST.

specifics enumerated in the Chinese pharmacopoeia, many
are compounded from such extraordinary substances as the
dried skins of red-spotted lizards, human milk, stag's antlers,
the shavings of rhinoceros-horns (an ingredient of the
far-famed "Rhinoceros Pills," warranted to cure "tight-
ness of the chest, gnashing of the teeth, depression of
spirits," and other ailments too numerous to mention),
asbestos, and roasted and ground-up tortoise-shell. The
ingredients of these loathsome drugs may induce a pitying
smile, but the advertisements which have, for centuries,
proclaimed, in bold Chinese ideograms, their universal
curative powers, bear a strange likeness to the familiar
announcements that inform us, from the pages of our
newspapers, the hoardings in our streets, and the sign-
boards in our fields, that " Cureall's Great Lung Pills are
the Best," and that one may practically defy disease
by using one box of Quack's Ointment. The universal
medicine carried by the Shi-zoku of to-day is not mon-
strously compounded, but, as in the case of the old
specifics, practical omnipotence is claimed for it, and with
some show of reason. It is, indeed, a sovereign remedy
to alleviate most troubles, consisting, as it does, of a
number of specimens of Japan's coinage, admirably struck
at the Imperial Mint at Osaka, and some notes of the
Bank of Japan.

I have said that the Shi-zoku has no pockets in his
garments, but, of late years, something very like one has
been introduced into the obi, or girdle. By sewing up a
part of one of its folds, a safe receptacle is formed for the
watch, probably of Japanese manufacture, the chain of
which of silver, of bronze, or of a combination of links of
the various alloys so skilfully blended and coloured by
the metal-workers of Japan just shows an inch or two
of its length, with some small, cunningly-wrought pendant
attached, hanging over the upper edge of the obi.

Two other articles, the Shi-zoku s constant companions,
are essentially things of New Japan the silken handker-

" CHOP-STICKS: 1 6 1

chief and the match-box. The handkerchief has almost
entirely superseded, amongst the upper classes, the squares
of soft, but tough, paper that have been in use in Japan,
from time immemorial, for the purposes for which we
carry a pocket-handkerchief. These squares of paper,
folded into a flattened roll, were formerly carried in the
wallet, already described, the name of which was, in those
days, hana-gami-bukuro, "nose-paper-case," and paper is
still carried in it, though no longer for use in blowing, or
wiping, the nose. The masses still use "nose-paper,"
hana-gami, the squares that have done duty being folded
up small and deposited in the sleeve, which is the real
Japanese pocket, until, on reaching home, they are thrown
into the receptacle for waste paper, akin to the British
dust-bin, but with this advantage, that it is cleared of its
contents every morning by the Kami-kudzu-hiroi, the
Japanese counterpart of the Parisian chiffonnier.

This humble toiler, clad in patched garments of washed-
out blue cotton, a kerchief of the same material bound
over the lower part of the face, to keep the dust out of
mouth and nostrils, does not carry a hook, like the French
rag-picker, but a pair of bamboo sticks, used as tongs,
with a dexterity the Japanese owe to their manipulation,
at every meal, of the slender eating-sticks, the hashi,
better known to us by their Pidjin - English name as
" C/20/>-sticks." Throughout the Far East food is invari-
ably conveyed to the mouth by means of these little
sticks, similar to the longer of the crochet-hooks of the
West in length and thickness, daintily held by the first
two fingers and thumb of the right hand. Their constant
use has made Chinese, Japanese and Koreans so expert
that when they pick up a small article, too minute to be
easily grasped with the fingers, or that they, for some
reason or other, do not care to touch, they often seize it
with a pair of sticks, where we would use tongs or
pincers. Thus the Japanese artisan sometimes picks up
the most minute parts of his work with two tiny sticks ;

62 THE NEW FAR EAST.

in the hibachi, the brazier over which the Japanese warm
their hands in winter (it warms little else), and at the
kitchen-stove, the hi-bashi, two slender iron rods, held in
the same way as " Chop-sticks," replace our poker and
tongs ; the tabako-bon, or smoking-tray, one of the most
important pieces of furniture in the house, often has its
pair of metal has hi, wherewith the smoker may stir up the
embers in the little fire-bowl containing the glowing charcoal
to light his, or her, pipe.

The Kami-kudzu-hiroi, who picks up scraps of paper
and unconsidered trifles with his pair of bamboo sticks,
and throws them into his basket, is, generally, one of the
Eta, that class of mysterious origin, who were considered
as outcasts in Old Japan, earning their livelihood by
exercising callings that would have defiled any other
Japanese occupations involving contact with dead bodies,
human or animal, or otherwise looked upon as degrading.
They were, and to a great extent still are, the under-
takers, the grave-diggers, the executioners, the slaughterers,
and the tanners of Japan, the cobblers who mend the
geta, or clogs, and the gatherers of waste-paper and of
refuse of all kinds. They had no political rights; they,
and the miserable class of beggars, still lower in the social
scale, the Hi-nin (literally : " Not-human "), hardly had
a right to their lives, even if they succeeded, by their
industry, in amassing comparative wealth, as the Eta
sometimes, the Hi-nin rarely, did. The Great Change
brought many reforms in its train, but none more humane,
none that did greater honour to its promoters, than the
Edict issued by the Council of State on the twelfth of
October, 1871, eloquent in its simplicity, and commencing
with the words :

"The designations of Eta and Hi-nin are abolished.
Those who bore them are to be added to the general
registers of the population, and their social position and
methods of gaining a livelihood are to be identical with
those of the rest of the people."

THE "ETA" RUBBISH-PICKER. 63

The Great Change was worth making, if only for this
noble edict that made men of nearly a million of outcasts
and placed them on a footing of legal equality with their
compatriots. * Eta and Hi-nin are mere names of the
past. Those that bore them are now free men, and their
sons have passed, and are passing, through the great
national mill, that takes Shi-zoku and farmer, noble and
craftsman, scholar and trader, the sons of the proud
retainer of an ex-feudal lord and of the lowly Eta, of
the wealthy sa^-brewer and of the poor Hi-nin, and
transforms them all into soldiers of the Imperial Army,
marching under the same glorious flag.

So the Eta rubbish-picker may hold up his head now,
save in the presence of dog-owners, amongst whom he
has an evil reputation, for they accuse him of being a
foul poisoner of many a sleek canine pet, done to death
for the sake of his skin. The old Eta leather-dressing
craft is still familiar to the "paper-picker"; dog-skins are
used for making drum-heads and command a fair price.
When no dogs are about to tempt him, the Kami-kudzn-
hiroi is a harmless and useful toiler, clearing out the
waste-paper-box with punctuality, and thus relieving the
house of its daily accumulation of used paper-handkerchiefs.
The idea of paper being used for cleansing the nose may,
at first, be repugnant to us, but a walk through any
street in Europe, or in America, much frequented by the
proletariat, will soon lead us to wish that the masses of
the West would imitate, in this respect, the people of
Japan. Paper handkerchiefs are cheap, they save washing-
bills, and, above all, they are far better than no hand-
kerchiefs at all.

It is a far cry from the days of the prehistoric hero
Prince Yamato-take* to those of New Japan, yet through
the intervening centuries his countrymen carried, and some
of them, in the remote mountainous districts of the interior,

* The exact numbers, at the time of the issue of the Edict, were:
287,111 Eta and 695,689 Hi-nin.

64 THE NEW PAR EAST.

still carry, the hi-uchi-bukuro, the " fire-strike-bag," con-
taining the fire-kindling implements, similar to the one
that we are told, in the legends of the dim past, was
slung to the scabbard of the great warrior's magic sword.
But flint and steel have had their day, and the modern
Japanese carries a match-box filled with the products of
one of the most flourishing industries of his country. He
may use an elegant little match-box of chased and inlaid
metal, or, ir economically inclined, may carry a simple
wooden box of Japanese " safety matches," not to be
distinguished, at first sight, from the well-known boxes
of Swedish " tandstickor" or of our own London-made
matches. The manufacture of wooden matches of various
kinds has progressed by leaps and bounds in New Japan,
until they have become an important article of export,
Tokio, Osaka, and the Prefecture of Hiogo sending millions
of gross of boxes to all parts of Asia, and even to
Australia, in the course of the year, nearly the whole
quantity being "safety matches." China and British India
are the chief customers, and in those countries Japanese
matches have virtually swept their Swedish and British
rivals out of the market. This success has been achieved
chiefly by the remarkable cheapness of the Japanese pro-
duct, for the quality occasionally leaves much to be desired.
Japanese Consuls in China and in India have frequently
reported loud complaints as to the inferior quality of a
great part of the matches exported, complaints apparently
justified, the irritation of some of the disappointed pur-
chasers going so far as to cause them to class Japanese
matches with those of the French Government Monopoly
the direst insult that can be offered to a match. The
Japanese manufacturers of tsuke-gi, or "kindling-sticks,"
have taken the consular remonstrances to heart for, un-
like our British manufacturers, they study Consular Reports,
and heed their warnings and suggestions and a very not-
able improvement has taken place in the quality. Much as
the boxes resemble those from Sweden, certain announce-

JAPANESE "KINDLING-STICKS." 65

ments on the labels are peculiarly Japanese ; for instance,
in the case of some of the brands most in favour in the
country itself, the statement that "these matches are pure,
and fit to be used for lighting the lamps of the gods."
Thus are the scruples of those appeased who would
otherwise hesitate to kindle the lamps before the house-
hold shrines, Buddhist or Shin-to, sometimes both the
majority of the Japanese following the observances of
one of the numerous Buddhist sects as well as those of
the truly national ancestor-worship, the ancient Shin-to
with a new-fangled invention, introduced from abroad,
possibly involving the use of phosphorus, made from the
bones of animals, and hence impure. For quite other,
and more material, reasons do the Swedes assure the
world, on millions of yellow labels, that their " safety
matches " are made " titan svafvel och fosfor." *

I have described thus in detail the dress of the gentle-
man of New Japan, and its accessories, not only because
of the opportunities of throwing side - lights on some
manners and customs affected by the introduction ot
Western ideas and on some of the new industries created,
and the old ones affected, by the new conditions but
with the object of dispelling the prevalent misconception
that the national costume is in danger of early extinction.
There was a period in which it seemed doomed to give
way before the dress of the West, as represented by
hideous imported " slop - clothes " and native imitations
thereof. From 1873 to 1887, especially in the last three
years of that period, the adoption of European dress pro-
gressed rapidly amongst the upper classes. It had been
made compulsory for officials, when on duty, in 1873, and
had steadily gained ground amongst students, bankers,
merchants, and others coming, more or less directly, under
foreign influence. Officials and students returning from

* " Without sulphur or phosphorus."
F

66 THE NEW FAR EAST.

abroad aroused the envy of their countrymen by appearing,
on all occasions, in the latest productions of the fashion-
able tailors, hatters, and bootmakers, the best hosiers and
glovers, of Bond Street and of the Rue Vivienne, of Unter
den Linden and of Broadway, and their stay-at-home com-
patriots strove to imitate their apparel. The imitation was
not always carried out with thoroughness, but, too often,
piecemeal, separate articles of European attire being donned
in conjunction with native clothing, with ludicrous results.
A "chimney-pot" hat, its nap only too frequently brushed
the wrong way, reared its ugly cylinder on the head of
the wearer of silken kimono and hakama, a very short
" covert-coat " of approved Melton Mowbray pattern was
worn over an otherwise purely Japanese costume ; even
when all the garments were of European cloth and cut,
some accessory was often sadly incongruous. Gentlemen
might be seen attending an official garden-party in full
evening dress, its effect marred by the trousers being
tucked into high boots, and by an European bath- towel
worn round the neck as a comforter. There is a dark and
dreadful legend, I have been unable to trace to its source,
of an elderly nobleman who attended an official reception
on New Year's Day, the greatest festival of the Japanese
year, in the evening dress of Europe, complete in every
respect but one and that an important one the outfitter
from whom he had ordered the ceremonial costume having,
unfortunately, omitted to send home the trousers !

These eccentricities gradually diminished, native tailors
began to produce excellent imitations of Western garments,
the gentlemen of Tokio were becoming accustomed to their
proper use in accordance with European fashions, and the
garb of Old Japan seemed doomed to disappear, after
its relegation to the working class in the towns, and to
the peasantry. The wave of German influence that swept
over Japan from 1885 to 1887 carried the innovation to
a still more dangerous point. The beautiful costume of
the women of Japan, so absolutely becoming to its wearers

s

00

w

o

RESUMPTION OF NATIONAL DRESS. 67

that one can hardly imagine them clad in any other way,
was threatened, and, sad to relate, the ladies of the Court
began to order dresses from Paris ? No the pen
almost refuses to chronicle the appalling fact -from Berlin !
In the nick of time, the reaction against a slavish imitation
of Occidental customs unsuited to the country came to
the rescue. In 1887, the national spirit, roused to indig-
nation against the Western Powers by the failure of Count
Inouye's attempts to induce them to negotiate a Revision
of the Treaties on the basis ardently desired by the
Japanese, caused a sudden return to many of the old
habits and customs that had fallen into abeyance. This
reaction in minor matters, whilst not impeding the nation's
progress in the adaptation of the essentials of modern
civilisation, has since made itself increasingly conspicuous.

Its outward and visible sign is the resumption of their
picturesque and becoming national dress by both men and
women of the upper class. The uniforms, naval, military,
and civil, are all of European pattern ; so is the court
dress of the nobility more is the pity, for no statelier
costume could be devised than that worn by the nobles of
Old Japan and, at most of the great court functions, the
Empress, one of those gracious little grandes dames who
look charming and dignified in any costume, appears in
European dress, together with her ladies, some of whom,
now accustomed to it, wear it with truly Parisian grace.
Officials are clad in European costume during office-hours,
but it may safely be said that, with the above exceptions,
the Japanese of the upper class now wear their national
dress at all times when the nature of their work, or recrea-
tion, does not render Western clothing much more suitable.
As I have already stated, European headgear is frequently
worn with Japanese clothes, usually with incongruous results.
Occidental socks and boots, or shoes, overcoats, " Inver-
ness " capes, waterproof coats and capes, comforters all
these are occasionally worn with native dress, and European
woollen underclothing is coming into very general use,

68 THE NEW FAR EAST.

owing to medical advice. Flannel shirts and woven "sing-
lets " are being more extensively used, year by year, even
by the working class, and cotton undershirts and drawers
are made in large quantities.

The dress I have attempted to describe is subject to
some modifications, according to the season. In winter, a
short under-jacket, or dogi, of silk, or cotton, is worn ; and,
in very cold weather, two wadded gowns, the nether one
called shita-gi, the upper one uwa-gi, keep the body
warm. In summer, the kimono is of thin material and of
lighter colour, the ji-ban, or shirt, shows a white edge at
the opening of the gown, and, indoors, or within the
precincts of his own garden, the Shi-zoku throws off the
summer haori, or overcoat, which is not necessarily black,
like the one worn in winter, the silken hakama, and even
the summer kimono of ro, or gauze- silk, and slips on a
yukata, a cotton bathgown, generally white with some
minute blue pattern the perfection of a garment for
lounging in hot weather. The loin-cloth (shita-obi) of
bleached muslin is always worn next to the skin. Its
plebeian counterpart, the fundoshi, is the foundation of
the costume of every male Japanese who earns his rice,
or only his millet, by the sweat of his brow. When
working away from houses, and secure from observation
by the lynx-eyed policeman, he reduces his dress to its
simplest form the loin-cloth, wondering greatly why the
powers that be should, at the instigation of the foreigners,
object to his thus baring his brawny limbs, his muscular
back and chest, just as untold generations of his ancestors
did unmolested.

The Shi-zoku has wisely reverted to his national dress,
but in one point of his appearance he belongs irrevocably
to New Japan. He wears his abundant hair cut in the
Occidental fashion, not always, sooth to say, in the most
approved Bond Street or Piccadilly style too frequently,
an inverted pudding-basin would appear to have guided
the scissors in their course but, uneven or sleek, his hair,

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE "PARTING." 69

with its parting in the European fashion, is a sign of the
Great Change. One of the first acts of those who shaped
the policy of New Japan was to order all officials to
abandon the national mode of wearing the hair, the time-
honoured custom of shaving the centre of the front and
top of the head, leaving the backhair long, to be gathered
into a little cue, the mage, which was bound with a
string, wound round and round its base, and then bent
forward, lying well over the shaven poll, the ends neatly
cut and trimmed. A glance at any Japanese picture re-
presenting a scene of any period between the heroic
times and 1870, containing bare-headed male figures, will
show the mage, and will demonstrate its appropriateness
to the Japanese countenance, to which it imparts a look
of great intelligence, due to the high, shaven forehead, and
of peculiar dignity. But the mage was a troublesome
fashion, involving the frequent ministrations of the barber,
and the loss of much time that was required, under the
new dispensation, for the study of many difficult subjects,
such as chemistry, and political economy, and Parlia-
mentary government. So the mage had to be cut off,
the smooth space on the head was suffered to grow a
crop of stubble, and the fraternity of barbers groaned in-
wardly, and learnt to cut the hair after the fashion of
the West.

The national way of dressing men's hair did not,
however, disappear suddenly, nor entirely. In the first
Japanese Parliament, which assembled in 1890, at least
three prominent members of the Lower House still wore
the little cue lying forward over the smooth, shaven space
on their conservative heads.

Now the mage has become rare. Some old men still
wear it, especially in country districts. With professional
wrestlers it is still de rigueur ; a large mag/, about the
size and shape of a door-knocker, is as distinctive of the
fat sumotori, the huge wrestler who towers over his com-
patriots like an obese giant, as is the coleta, the tiny

70 THE NEW FAR EAST.

pigtail, curling slightly upward, the mark of the lissom
bull-fighter, the graceful torero, of Seville. It gave the
Samurai's feelings a sad wrench when he parted with his
mage, the unmistakable badge of his nationality. His
dress might be confounded, by the casual observer, with
that of other Far Eastern nations, but the magd was
purely Japanese. Hence, the man who abandoned it
thereby proclaimed his adhesion to the new order of
things, his receptiveness of the new ideas derived from
intercourse with the foreigners whose mode of dressing
the hair he was, from that time, to follow.

PIGTAIL.

How many years must elapse before the Chinese
Mandarin makes up his mind to follow the example of
the Japanese, and cut off the most striking outward sign
of his nationality, the pigtail? On that day a new era
will dawn for China, for the long plait, often lengthened
by artificial additions, that hangs down between the
shoulders of the Chinese the black silk cord and tassel
at the end (the cord is a white one if the wearer be in
mourning), beating against his robe as he walks is the
symbol of the Chinese spirit as it now exists, a mass of
contradictions, opposed in almost every particular to the
ideals of our civilisation. Strangely enough, the wearing
of this pigtail, inseparably associated in our minds with
the natives of the Celestial Empire, is not a custom of
Chinese origin. It is one of those puzzles that baffle the
student of Chinese characteristics at every turn, that the
most conservative race in the world, a people to whom
anything " ancient " and " national " is equivalent to
" sacred," should have adopted a fashion imposed upon
them by a foreign conqueror, and made what was at
first a badge of national humiliation into a respected mark
of manhood.

When the Manchus put an end to the enfeebled Ming

THE INTRODUCTION OF THE PIGTAIL. 71

dynasty and made themselves masters of China, establish-
ing at Peking, in 1644, the alien Ts'ing dynasty that still
occupies the throne, they ordered the conquered people
to discontinue their mode of dressing their hair, which
they wore in various styles, according to occupation and
locality, but, as a rule, long and bunched up into a top-
knot. The Manchus compelled the vanquished to adopt
their own custom of shaving the head with the exception
of the back part, the long hair of which they plaited into
a tail. At first the humiliating innovation naturally met
with resolute opposition, many Chinese preferring death to
what they considered dishonour. The conquering Manchu,
finding that his attempts to impose on his new subjects,
at the point of the sword, his own national coiffure resulted
in innumerable risings and riots, adopted a different policy.
Acting on his knowledge of the national character, he
played on those feelings that are, even to this day, para-
mount in the Chinese : filial piety, and the desire to
"save one's face" that is, to preserve the outward sem-
blance of dignified respectability. The Manchu Emperor
decreed that none but loyal, law-abiding subjects might
shave the front part of the head and wear their back-hair
in a plait ; all males convicted of crime were to forfeit
this distinction. Thenceforward conviction was followed,
and still is followed, by the loss of the cue and by an
unshaven pate, which thus became the mark of a criminal.
Moreover, sons mourning for a parent were ordered to
show their grief by leaving the head unshaven, and the
cue unbraided and unkempt, for the space of one hundred
days from the date of their bereavement, a custom still
rigidly observed.

The Emperor's astute move was crowned with complete
success. What had been a token of subjection to alien
rule became, and has remained for more than two
centuries and a hall, a cherished badge of nationality,
apparently the most Chinese thing in China. In this
curious fact, and in the method by which it was brought

72 THE NEW FAR EAST.

about, there is matter for deep reflection on the part
of those who have in view the regeneration of China.
If the millions of the Flowery Land could be induced to
make an alien custom so entirely their own that its
abolition at the present day would mean a revolution,
surely there is some hope that native ideas may be
brought under other, and more beneficial, foreign influences,
provided the pressure from without be exercised in the
same wise manner, by making use of the feelings that
sway the Chinese mind. Thus, and thus only, can any
real changes ever be effected in China, by constantly
bearing in mind that the Chinese are Chinese a fact lost
sight of by the majority of those who propound schemes
for the regeneration of the Celestial Empire.

Completely as the Chinese have, apparently, adopted the
Manchu fashion of wearing the hair and this and the official
"button" on the hat are about the only things they
have acquired from their conquerors, who, on the contrary,
soon assimilated the civilisation of the more cultured van-
quished the opposition to the custom has, even yet, not
entirely died out. Nothing ever dies out entirely in China.
In the constantly recurring rebellions that shake the crazy
structure of the decaying Empire, now at one point, then
at another, the insurgents almost invariably allow the hair
to grow all over their heads, as a sign of revolt against
the Manchu usurpers. Whatever the real cause of the
rising, unless it be an outbreak of some of China's many
millions of Mohammedan subjects, it is almost invariably
represented as a national "legitimist" revolution against
Manchu rule, with the ultimate object of placing some
mysterious descendant of the Ming dynasty on the throne
that is his by right. Hence, the insurgents allow their
hair to grow, as did their ancestors in the days of the
Ming Emperors, and the Peking official proclamations
thunder against the " Hairy Rebels." In many of the
Secret Revolutionary Societies with which China is honey-
combed, the conspirators conceal their pigtails under their

THE SACREDNESS OF THE PIGTAIL. 73

caps when attending the meetings of their Lodge, the
badge of subjection hanging peacefully down their backs
when they go about their daily business as apparently
contented, law-abiding loyalists. The turbans worn by the
peasants of the southern provinces of Kwang-tung (called
by Occidentals "Canton") and Fu-kien are said, by some,
to have been originally devised to conceal the alien pig-
tail, coiled round the head; but I consider it more likely
that this head-dress (now worn by some of the regiments
drilled on the European plan) owes its origin to a desire
to shield the skull from the fierce rays of the sun. It
seems to me to be akin to the blue cotton kerchief the
Japanese craftsman, or labourer, winds so deftly round his
head, tying it in front with extraordinary rapidity, when
about to engage on any work likely to induce perspira-
tion. It is also very similar to the small turban worn by
the Malays and the Javanese, and to the still narrower
head-cloth of the neighbours of the Southern Chinese
the Burmese and the Siamese.

In spite of the occasional evidences of patriotic opposi-
tion to the Manchu custom, the pigtail remains the dis-
tinctive outward and visible sign of Chinese manhood. At
the age of thirteen or fourteen, the Chinese boy's head is
shaved clean of the little tufts that have been allowed to
grow on it, in separate circles, and have, in many cases,
been braided separately* but the tuft at the back is
retained and plaited into what is to become the symbol
of his having reached man's estate. The pigtail is treated
with respect, almost with reverence, and carefully tended.
It is the palladium ol a man's honour and self-respect.
To pull it is a dire insult ; to cut it off a heinous crime,
visited with severe punishment by law. So sensitive are
the Chinese as to its safety, that from time to time
especially when there is trouble brewing, and more
particularly when anti-foreign feeling is at fever-point a

* In infancy, and sometimes even in boyhood, the head is shaved
perfectly smooth all over.

74 THE NEW FAR EAST.

"pigtail-panic" drives the populace almost crazy with
fear, gruesome stories flying about of respectable citizens
suddenly and mysteriously shorn of their silky plait.
Epidemics of the pigtail - cutting crime undoubtedly do
occur, as mysteriously and with as little apparent object
as the occasional prevalence in England of the maniacal
instinct which prompts the stabbing of women, in the
lower part of the back, with penknives or long pins.*
As usual, the anti-foreign agitators, invariably Graduates,
or " Literati," give the populace broad hints as to the
probability that the Missionaries are at the bottom of the
trouble. In Mediaeval Europe, if there was a failure of
the crops, or an outbreak of the plague, the mob generally
burnt a Jew ; in Modern China, in case of any calamity,
or any untoward event, such as the loss of a pigtail, they
stone a Missionary. There is little doubt that tail-cutting
outrages have sometimes been perpetrated by deep schemers,
with the prospect of raising a popular ferment, in view of
consequent anti-foreign outrages and the embarrassments
into which they lead the Government at Peking.

At times the panic reaches such a pitch that the
Mandarins feel constrained to allay it. This they do, in
their own peculiar way, by advising the lieges to remain
at home as much as possible, avoiding " strangers "
(whereby foreigners are, of course, meant, as the Occi-
dental is generally considered to have the Evil Eye, his
glance having been known to burn off a well- grown pig-
tail at the roots a fact, at least, a Chinese fact !). They
sometimes follow up this warning by prescribing pro-
phylactics against the loss of the cherished cue. According
to divers Metropolitan Police Notifications, issued in Peking
since 1875, cords of certain bright colours, braided with the
hair, medicines to be taken internally, and cabalistic char-
acters written on bits of paper some to be swallowed,
some to be burnt, others to be plaited into the cue, and
one to be affixed over the door of the house are variously

* Almost any Superintendent of Police can supply instances.

OFFICIAL RANK IN CHINA.

75

prescribed as " Infallible Protectors against the Loss of Cues
by cutting." To officials who issue such "Notifications"
certain well-meaning Occidental enthusiasts attribute the
desire and the capacity to regenerate the people who read
and believe them !

The dress of the Chinese of the ruling class is too
well known to need detailed description. With moral
courage deserving our admiration and respect, he wears
his national costume in our midst, braving the curiosity of
gaping crowds and the ribald jests of the street-boys.
At state ceremonials we see the Chinese Mandarin, repre-
senting his Emperor, or attached to an Imperial Legation,
in all the glory of his full dress of office the gorgeous
satin robe of exquisite colour, marvellously embroidered,
the black satin boots with thick, white-edged soles, and
the official hat, with turned-up brim of dark satin, a tassel
of thin, red silken cords falling over the crown, topped by
the button indicating the wearer's official rank.* If the

* Official rank is indicated by the cognisance embroidered, within a
square, on the breast and the back of the robe, by the clasp of the silken
girdle, worn in Court Dress, and by the button on the top of the official
hat, as follows :

RANK.

COGNISANCE.

CLASP.

BUTTON.

In Court Dress:

Ruby, or

other trans-

First (the
highest)

( Civil : Crane.
( Military : Unicorn.

\ Jade set in rubies. <
) Jade.

parent red
stone ; at

other times .

Red Coral.

( Civil : Golden Pheasant.

) Gold set in rubies, i

Red c o ra 1 ,

Second.

I Military : Lion.

\ Chased gold. |

chased.

("Sapphire, or

Third.

( Civil : Peacock.
\ Military : Leopard.

I Chased gold.

other trans-
parent blue

stone.

Fourth,

f Civil : The Yen, a white
-! migratory bird.
( Military : Tiger.

j Chased gold. j B1 s - e P^ Ue

Fifth.

( Civil : Silver Pheasant.
t Military : Bear.

. Plain gold with a ") .-. , i
IMI i_ ( Crystal, or
> silver knob r ,

' Plain gold. ) S lass '

Sixth.

( Civil : Egret.
< Military : Tiger-cat.

| Tortoise-shell.

White opaque
shell, or glass.

76 THE NEW FAR EAST.

function take place in winter, we admire the costly furs
lining the satin jacket worn over the robe. The whole
costume, varied in summer by the wearing of robes of
lighter silk and by a hat of straw, or of finely-plaited
bamboo, of low conical shape, with the usual tassel and
button, is remarkably stately, but it conveys, to Occidental
minds, an impression of effeminacy. Seated, its wearer
looks as grave and as imposing as a British Lord Justice
on the bench. In motion, the effect he produces is
pompous rather than dignified. The robes that fall
about his legs, the long, wide sleeves that droop over
his hands, impede his movements ; his whole dress is
unsuited to a man of action.

Throughout the length and breadth of the Chinese
Empire, the official costume is the same, and its changes

Seventh. \ Civil: Mandarin Duck. J Silver \ pj ^

\ Military : Tiger-cat. j Tortoise-shell. } *

Eighth. Civil: Quail. J T ' ans P arent } Chased gold.

( horn. )

Ninth. Civil : Jay. Black horn. Chased gold.

It will be noticed that the Civil Cognisances represent harmless birds,
whilst the Military ones depict wild beasts of various degrees of fierceness,
according to Chinese "unnatural history." Military Mandarins of the
same nominal rank as civil officials never enjoy a tithe of the respect
shown by the people to the latter. In China the pen is, indeed, mightier
than the sword.

By a "Chased" Button, of coral or of gold, a button is meant that
has the "lucky" character Sio engraved on it in two places.

In the Chinese Navy the rank of the combatant officers was, at the
time of the war with Japan, distinguished by the number and size of
the dragons worked in gold on the sleeves.

The hat-button denoting official rank is of Manchu origin. It was
instituted, in an elementary form, by Ts'ung-te, who ruled over the
Manchus just before Shun-chih, who reigned in Manchuria from 1636
to 1644, when he became Emperor of China, the first of the Ts'ing
dynasty, which still occupies the throne. Shun-chih introduced the
button into China.

The peacock's feather, with no "eye," or with one, two, or even
three "eyes," projecting backwards from a small tube, sometimes of
jade, inserted horizontally at the base of the gold setting of the hat-
button, is not a badge of rank, but a mark of Imperial favour bestowed
for meritorious service.

CHINESE COSTUME. 77

from summer to winter uniform, and vice versd, take
place, irrespective of latitude and local climate, on the
same day, fixed by law and duly notified beforehand by
Imperial edict, much as in the German Army, whose
warriors must perforce shiver in white duck trousers if
the official "first day of spring" happens to be a bitterly
cold one. Residents in the principal capitals of the West
are by this time familiar, not only with Chinese official
costume, but with the dress of the private gentleman, as
worn by the members of the Legations when taking their
walks abroad. The flowing silken robe of rich colour,
with sleeves so long that they must be turned up to allow
free play to the hands, the deep cuff thus formed often
serving, in the West, as a pocket for the handkerchief (an
article unknown in China, and, unfortunately, without even
the paper substitute in use in Japan) ; the dark satin
jacket, closed by small loops of braid and little, round,
golden buttons ; the trousers of light-coloured silk, tied
at the ankle; the satin shoes with their thick soles, care-
fully whitened at the edges ; the small round, stiff cap of
black satin, with the "little round button at top" these
are worn by the " Literati " and by the middle classes in
China to this day. In winter, the jacket is fur-lined, the
other garments are thickly wadded, and more warmth is
obtained by wearing additional clothes, till a gentleman of
Peking on a frosty day is covered with as many layers
as an onion. Summer or winter, the girdle worn under
the short, loose jacket (which sometimes has no sleeves)
and over the upper robe, has depending from it a silken
pouch with tassels of fringe, a case containing the ivory
eating-sticks,* and often another holding the tobacco-pipe,

* The Chinese carry their " chop -sticks " about their persons. The
Japanese keep theirs at home. In Japanese restaurants it is usual to
hand each customer a slender slip of wood, slit almost in two, lengthways,
the customer completing the separation into a pair of eating-sticks that
cannot possibly have been used before. This compares favourably with
the imperfectly cleaned forks of some Occidental eating-houses.

78 THE NEW FAR EAST.

with a metal bowl, small, but approaching more nearly to
ours than the tiny Japanese acorn-cup. As the Chinese
enjoys his smoke, he is probably oblivious of the fact
that the habit reached his ancestors, in the seventeenth
century, in the North, through Korea, from Japan, where
the herb had just been introduced by the Portuguese ; in
the South, from Luzon, one of the Philippine Islands. The
Chinese seem to have been in a receptive mood in the
latter half of the seventeenth century ; their now cherished
pigtails, their official hat-buttons, and their inveterate
smoking habit, all alien customs, now so firmly established,
date from that period.

A fan, similar to that used by the Japanese, is carried,
in summer, by every Chinese. Here, again, the average
Chinese is unaware that what he fondly looks upon as
a truly national invention, dating from remote antiquity,
was originally an importation from Japan. The folding-
id^ is, undoubtedly, a Japanese invention, due, according
to tradition, to the widow of the young warrior Atsumori,
slain by the hero KUMAGAI Naozane in the defeat of
the Taira Clan by their rivals, the Minamoto, at Ichi-
no-tani, near the present Kobe, in A.D. 1184. The young
widow became a Buddhist nun, and during her retirement
at the temple of Miei-do, at Kidto, she cured the abbot
of a fever, so it is said, by fanning him with a paper
folding-fan, made by her in imitation of the structure of
a bat's wing. This was the prototype of all the ogi of
Japan, and, therefore, of their imitations, the folding-fans
of all other countries. The legend states that the fanning
was accompanied by incantations, and leaves us to decide
whether the abbot had to thank them or the fan for his
recovery. The part played by the bat, as the model for
the invention, was commemorated in the name of a fan
used at the court of Old Japan, the komori, or "bat."
To this day the priests of the Miei-do temple are famous
as fan-makers, and, throughout Japan, shops where fans are
sold often hang out the name of that temple as a sign.

THE CHINESE FOLDING-FAN. 79

From Japan, through Korea, the half-way house of her
ancient intercourse with China, the folding-fan reached
the court of the third Ming Emperor, Ch'eng-tsu, who
reigned from A.D. 1403 to 1425. It rapidly became popular,
probably being looked upon as a Korean invention ; as a
Japanese one it would hardly have found favour, the
Japanese having twice raided parts of the Chinese coasts
during Ch'eng-tsu's reign. It was a slight return for Japan
to make, this giving of a new, and more practical, kind
of fan (the stiff, non-folding sort, evolved from the palmetto
leaf, had come into China, probably from India, traditionally
in 1106 B.C. ; historically, they were in use under the T'ang
Emperor Kau-tsung, A.D. 650 to 684,) in exchange for an
entire system of civilisation, received from China, partly
through Korea. In 1894 an ^ I ^95, Japan again gave China
something, by the way of Korea, as usual not a fan,
this time, but a thrashing, destined to mark a turning-
point in China's history.

Considered as a whole, the dress of the Chinese of
the upper and middle classes is comfortable and fairly
hygienic. It hangs loosely, tight clothing being considered
by the Chinese to be highly indecent, as revealing the
outlines of the figure. For those who can afford furs, or
even sheepskin linings, or wadded garments, it secures a
fair amount of comfort in winter, although its looseness
and its wide-mouthed sleeves admit more cold air than
is pleasant in the bitter weather experienced in the North,
sometimes for months together. The Chinese dress is
deficient in one respect that appears of great importance
to Occidentals. In common with all the inhabitants of
the Far East, the Chinese has no pockets. Whatever he
wants to carry about his person must be attached to the
girdle, thrust into the bosom of the robe (an unsafe
receptacle), stuck into the fold of the turned-up sleeve,
or the turned-up brim of a hat, put into his cap, or, if
its size and shape will allow, tied up in the tdi-zu, the
tape, an inch wide, confining the trousers at the ankle.

8o THE NEW FAR EAST.

(The fact of our wearing trousers open at the ankle, in
winter, is a source of continual wonder to the Chinese,
who inquire if we do not feel very cold about the legs
in such irrational garments.) Some Chinese of the working
class even use the ear as a purse, to contain, it is true,
only a very small sum just one " cash."

Of the body covered by the Mandarin's gorgeous
raiment I would rather not write. The subject is an
unsavoury one. If the Japanese be, and they undoubtedly
are, the cleanest people on earth, the Chinese are certainly
amongst the dirtiest. Their towns are indescribably filthy,
the narrow streets reeking with offal and the stench of
every abomination ; their villages are nearly as bad ; their
houses even their palaces contain foul corners, grimy
with ancient dust, and the state of their bodies makes a
Chinese crowd malodorous to a degree. Public bath-
houses exist for the benefit of the working class, who
occasionally use them, but those high up in the social
scale consider a perfunctory "lick" with a damp rag, and
a wipe with a cotton towel about the size of a pocket-
handkerchief, as complete matutinal ablutions. In the
North, washing during the winter months, when frost and
snow prevail, is looked upon as positively injurious to
health, and the complexion of the natives becomes darker
by degrees as the time for their " spring cleaning "
approaches. Chinese in Occidental employ, however, soon
learn to conform to our ideas of personal cleanliness, and
the Mandarins and students who reside for some time in
the West take to the use of soap and water quite readily,
and become as clean as those with whom they come
in contact. But in China filth and bad smells reign
supreme, although there are, as in ever}*- country, some
people who are distinguished by exceptional personal
cleanliness and neatness. By the great majority clothes
are worn long after they have become saturated with
perspiration. The dear old lady who exclaimed, in hei
innocence : " Dear me ! What dirty people the Chinese

CARE OP THE PERSON. 81

must be ! Every time I see a telegram from Shanghai
in the newspapers, it always ends with ' Grey shirtings
unchanged' !"* was not very far from the truth, after all.
In China prominent public men pay little, or no atten-
tion to personal cleanliness, even when they belong to
the Navy, the service identified, in our minds, with a
scrupulous cleanliness which is almost a religion. A
friend of mine who had the honour once of sitting
at an official banquet next to the late gallant Admiral
Ting, one of the few great men modern China has pro-
duced, noticed, through the wide openings of the sleeves
of the Admiral's gorgeous robe, that he was wearing an
under-garment, once white, that was literally "grey" from
being " unchanged ! "

It is strange that this general lack of personal cleanli-
ness should prevail amongst people who take such extreme
care of their hair, as shown by the attention bestowed on
the pigtail, on the moustache and chin-tuft, that appear
late in life when the Chinese of the class of the
"Literati," or Graduates, invests in enormous spectacles
(sometimes of plain glass) with frames of horn, to give
himself a learned appearance and who periodically cause
their ears to be cleaned by the peripatetic barber. The
chiropodist, too, exists in China, and is held to be of
higher social status than the barber, because he sits whilst
at work. Chinese hands and feet are generally small and
shapely, but the hands of the people of position of both
sexes are disfigured by the ridiculous length to which the
nails are sometimes allowed to grow, as evidence that
their owner does no manual labour, a length requiring
the use of silver cases, worn like thimbles, to protect the
tapering claws. The custom is, fortunately, much less
prevalent within the last few years. It has its modified
counterpart in Europe, where the officers of some armies,
and some of those who ape them, notably in Germany

* A frequent item in Market Reports relating to Manchester goods.
G

83 THE NEW FAR EAST.

and in Austria, allow the nail of the little finger of the
left hand to grow to an inordinate length. This form
of idiotcy is also, fortunately, tending to disappear.

TOPKNOT.

Now that I have described the appearance of the
Japanese Shi-zoku and of the Chinese Mandarin, the
Korean Yang-ban claims attention. Tall, stately, imper-
turbable, his handsome features, nearer to the "Caucasian"
type than those of Japanese or. Chinese, are calm and
serene, as befits one of the aristocracy of Cho-son (in
the written language, Tsio-sien ; in Chinese, Chao-sien ;
in Japanese, Cho-sen, or Korai) the Land of "the Morning
Calm."* Truly an appellation bestowed by the Koreans
on their country (officially since A.D. 1392) on the lucus
a non lucendo principle, for it has been to the Far East,
through many centuries, a battle-field for warring Empires,
as the Low Countries were so often for the contending
Powers of Europe ; when not occupied by foreign armies,
or raided by Tartar hordes, its inhabitants seem to have
kept up an interest in life by frequent rebellions. Within
the last two centuries an era seemed to have dawned for
Korea in which she might slumber peacefully and deserve
her poetic name. The period of calm was not to last ;
heroic French Missionaries, soon to be massacred, and
daring American and German filibusters invaded her shores.
The filibusters seemed to have acquired all the calmness
appropriate to a country with such an appellation, for
their simple purpose was to steal the coffins, reputed to
be of pure gold, of several of Korea's kings. Their
expedition, led by two men of genius only such could
have conceived the plan named Oppert and Jenkins,
sailed from Shanghai in 1867, reached the Korean coast,
and, like another, more recent, Raid that Failed, found

* Literally, "Morning Freshness" or "Serenity."

KOREAS UNWELCOME VISITORS. 83

that they had reckoned without their host, and returned
crestfallen."* After them came more Americans those
golden coffins were very exciting to the imagination of
an enterprising race and more massacres (when white
people are killed, in any circumstances, by people of any
other race, it is always a " Massacre " ; when it is the
white men who do the killing, it is called "Severe Losses
of the Enemy," or " Great Slaughter of the Rebels ").
The Koreans were, probably, encouraged in their prompt
suppression of the second American attempt by the futile
nature of the expedition, in 1866, of the French
Admiral Roze, who, failing to receive satisfaction for the
murders of French Missionaries, bombarded the forts of
Kang-hoa, with meagre results, and sailed away. In 1871,
Admiral Rogers, of the United States Navy, appeared on
the scene with an expedition specially organised for the
purpose of avenging the burning of the American schooner
General Sherman, with her crew, and of compelling the
Hermit Kingdom to abandon its system of rigid exclusion
of all Occidentals, for whatever purpose they might come.
The unlucky forts at Kang-hoa were again bombarded,
the Korean troops, chiefly professional tiger-hunters from
the interior, fought with unexpected determination against
the American landing-party ; there were relatively heavy
losses on both sides, and Rogers departed, as Roze had
done, leaving Korea as much a sealed-up land as before,
with her fear of foreign invasion intensified. At last, in
1876, the Japanese, in consequence of an attack on some
of the crew of their warship Unyo-kan, who had landed,
again at Kang-hoa, sent an envoy, General Kuroda, backed
up by a powerful display of naval force, and succeeded in

* A Roman Catholic priest was associated with the German Oppeit
and the American Jenkins in this enterprise, which was of the nature of
a "syndicate venture." The priest gave out that the object was to seize
the Royal coffins, and to hold them until the King consented to open up
the country and to tolerate Christianity. His partners were more direct ;
they drew up, it is said, a statement of the " Estimated Profits from Sale
of Golden Coffins."

84 THE NEW FAR EAST.

breaking the spell without recourse to arms. A treaty
was concluded/ and the Western Powers were not slow
to follow suit. Here, as nineteen years later in China,
Japan's action was the means of providing new markets
for the trade of the West. In Korea, Japan opened the
door wide, that had been only ajar to her traders, at the
one port of Fusan, since 1443, and the Occident, repre-
sented by its Consuls and its merchants, its Missionaries
and its adventurers, walked in. In China, Japan forced
the half-open door back on its rusty hinges, opening a
way, not only to fresh markets immediately available to
the whole civilised world, but straight to the key of the
position, admitting influences that are hurrying on the
solution of the greatest problem now confronting our
civilisation the future of the Chinese nation. We have
heard much talk of "the Open Door," but little of
Japan's share in opening it wide and in keeping it open.

Since the treaty forced upon her by Japan in 1876,
the history of Korea has been a succession of " alarums
and excursions," of plots and counterplots, political assas-
sinations and executions, rebellions, riots, and invasions.
This truly "distressful country" has been the scene of
the intrigues of the diplomatists of half-a-dozen states ;
she has been the prey of adventurers from all parts of
the world. In turn she has been swayed by German
"advisers," American military instructors and missionaries,
Russian diplomatists and Japanese envoys. In 1897, Korea
was the rope in a spirited "tug-of-war" between Russia
and Japan, diversified, for a time, by a game of "pull
devil, pull baker" between Russia and Britain, the whole
tussle ending with "graceful concessions" by Russia to
Britain and, for ulterior motives, to Japan.

Throughout all this turmoil, one class in Korea re-
mained almost unshaken in its adherence to the line oi
conduct it had pursued for centuries. The Yang-ban, most
indolent of Far Eastern aristocrats, is not to be hurried on
the thorny path of reform by hectoring Japanese or per-

THE KOREAN "MASHER." 85

suasive Russian, by energetic German or smart American.
The younger generation are changing, slowly but surely ;
the men still in the prime of early manhood were born
too long before the foreign influences came into play to
be more than superficially affected by them. The Yang-
ban whose appearance I shall attempt to describe clings
to his native costume, the quaintest in the quaint Far
East, in spite of the attempt made in 1897, under Japanese
influence, to induce him to don European, or semi-
European garb.

As he swings towards us with a ridiculously pompous
gait, the personification of supercilious swagger, his dress
presents a striking contrast to his deportment, his usual
walking costume (quite distinct from his official uniform)
being of almost Puritan simplicity an impression heightened
by his hat, the distinctive headgear of his race, recalling,
by its shape, the hats of the days of Cromwell. The official
dress he wears at Court, or on any ceremonial occasion, is
copied, even to details, from that worn at the Court of
China in the heyday of the Ming dynasty, the last line of
purely Chinese Emperors, who reigned from A.D. 1368 to
1628. It consists of a long, loose robe of dark blue, or brown,
silk, replacing, at Japanese instigation, the gaudy robes, of
the same cut, of scarlet, bright blue, or yellow, worn by
all officials but the highest, and those of richly-figured
Chinese silks worn by the high dignitaries, prior to 1895.
On the breast and back are affixed shields, or panels, ol
embroidery, displaying a cognisance indicating the wearer's
official rank a tiger, for instance, or a crane, or stork (not,
as inadvertently stated by Lord Curzon of Kedleston, on
page 157 of the new and revised edition (1896) of his
Problems of the Far East, " a stalk " !). Over the robe a
clumsy-looking belt is worn, adorned with large plates, or
bosses, of gold, silver, jade, ivory, ' or horn, according to
the rank, the ungraceful effect of the belt, which is worn
high up, almost under the arms, being increased by the
fact that it is made to remain at a distance of several

86 THE NEW FAR EAST.

inches from the body, in front, as if to allow room for the
expansion of the official after an unusually hearty meal.
Thick-soled boots, of cloth or satin, are worn, and a head-
dress such as we see depicted on Chinese works of art
representing scenes of the Ming period. This curious cap,
a sort of mitre, is made of finely-cut and interlaced strips
of bamboo, lacquered black, or of horsehair-cloth, and is
subject to many modifications of shape, according to the
wearer's rank. Its form varies from that of a small pile
of flowerpots of graduated sizes, standing one within the
other, to that of an ornate lamp-shade turned upside down ;
but the best way to obtain an idea of its more usual forms
is to study the various moulds used by our pastry-cooks
in the production of their sponge-cakes and their jellies.
In the case of Ministers, and high officials generally, the
cap is often adorned with four singular projections : two
paddles, shaped like the petals of a flower, standing out
on either side, above and behind the ears, and two
shorter ones standing straight up. There is a tradition
that these projections, all of the same material as the cap,
and dating, likewise, from the Chinese Ming period, are
meant to represent ears and wings. The extra pair of long
ears are not intended as a reflection on the statesman's
wisdom the patience of the ass and his firmness of will,
branded by us as obstinacy, rather commend the animal
to the Oriental mind they are meant to indicate his
capacity to receive information and complaints, and to
overhear plots. The wings are typical of the zeal and
alacrity with which he flies to do his sovereign's bidding.

Our Yang- ban has laid aside, for the nonce, the
antique dress just described, and appears in a costume
hardly less ancient, that is more Occidental, in its general
outline, than the clothing of the modern Chinese and
Japanese. The key-note of his appearance is its spotless
whiteness. His baggy breeches, drawn in at the ankle ;
his long smock, slit at the sides, very short-waisted (a
black silken girdle-cord passing round it close under the

THE YANG -BAN'S HAT. 87

arms), the full skirts sticking out ridiculously from near
the armpits ; his padded socks all are white and all are
of cotton, which necessitates their being thickly wadded
in the severe winter. His hat and his clumsy cloth
shoes are the only things he wears, except his girdle,
that are not absolutely white .* The shoes are of black,
or dark blue, cloth ; the hat, or kat, is black, of finely-split
and interlaced bamboo, or in the case of cheap hats, such
as a Yang- ban would probably scorn to wear of woven
horsehair. In either case the hat looks, to an Occidental,
as if it were made of black wire-gauze, such as is used
for meat-safes and fencing-masks. In shape the hat is
between a Puritan's and a Welshwoman's in those parts
of the Principality where the- national head-dress still
survives. The crown is a truncated cone, the brim wide
and perfectly straight. What strikes one at first sight is
the insufficient diameter of the crown, much too small to
fit the head, so that the hat has to be lashed on by
broad black cords tied under the chin, often supplemented
by a string of amber and cornelian beads. This gives the
wearer the undignified appearance of a man who has
come away from a party with the only opera-hat left in
the cloak-room, someone else's and several sizes too small.
It has not even the sole redeeming feature of the absurd,
useless, unwarlike, " pat-of-butter " cap tied on (for it is
only the chin-strap which keeps it on) to the side of the
head of British soldiers of various arms ; that has, at
least, a rakish appearance.

There is a reason for the peculiar construction of the
Yang-ban's hat, a work of art that may cost him over
twenty dollars ; the ordinary man's hat, of the same
pattern but of cheap material, may cost three or four.
The kat is not intended as a covering for the head any
more than Mr. Thomas Atkins's "cap on three 'airs."
It is built up as a receptacle, an outer protection, for

* It is said that in former times the colour worn was pale blue.

88 THE NEW FAR EAS1\

another head-dress, a cap, the mang - kun, somewhat
like the British joiner's paper working-cap, but with-
out a crown, and made of the same material as the hat
worn over it. The cap has a band which fits tightly
round the head, and it contains, within its wire-gauze-
like walls, the Korean's most cherished possession his
topknot. To him it is a constant reminder that, when
the Manchu seized the throne of China, and held Korea
in the hollow of his hand, he inflicted the pigtail, his,
the conqueror's, own national custom, only on the Chinese,
whereas the Koreans were allowed to retain the mode of
wearing their hair they had adopted from the people of
ancient China. The Korean boy wears his hair long,
parted in the middle, and plaited into a long, thick cue,
frequently augmented with artificial hair. This coiffure,
never covered by any head-dress, gives the young Korean
a strangely girlish look, with the "bread-and-butter Miss"
expression of the average German Backfisch, whose hair
is usually dressed in the same style as the Korean boy's.
When the Korean youth is betrothed, as he is, generally,
at a very early age, sometimes even at nine or ten years
of age, his cue is unplaited, the hair is dragged away
from the forehead, encircled by a fillet, and bunched up
into a topknot, the sang-tu, the national symbol of man-
hood, to be protected, in later years, by the cap and
hat that have already been described.* A bachelor of
forty may not wear the coveted token of solid, married,
or betrothed, respectability ; he must be content to wear
the pigtail of boyhood.

The unbetrothed bachelor of forty, or, indeed, of any
age over twenty, would not belong to the upper class,
for all Korean parents in comfortable circumstances
betroth their sons in boyhood, and marry them as early
as possible, generally between the fourteenth and eighteenth

* The actual mang-kun is the fillet, continually worn, of which the cap
and the hat are the adjuncts. It is wound so tightly round the head that
it makes an indelible mark on many Korean foreheads

A DRAGON'S PRACTICAL JOKES. 89

years of their age, to brides almost invariably their seniors
by at least three, and sometimes by as much as eight,
years. The Yang-ban we are considering is, therefore,
certainly a married man, entitled since his betrothal in
boyhood to a topknot, and, since marriage, to the curious
hat protecting it. (During the years of betrothal he wore
a distinctive hat of straw.) The Korean, having attained
the honour of a topknot, bestows the greatest care upon
it, and is as anxious about its safety as is the Chinese
about that of his pigtail. Epidemics of topknot-cutting
occur in Korea, occasioning panics similar to those I have
described as convulsing Chinese society from time to
time.

In Korea, the hair-cutting crime is ascribed to a malevo-
lent dragon, who dares to commit these outrages in the
very precincts of the Sovereign's palace, attacking the
topknots even of the Life Guards on sentry duty. In 1888,
His Korean Majesty sent a gracious message to the Chargd
d" Affaires of the United States, Colonel Chaill6-Long
"Bey" (formerly of the Egyptian Army), requesting him
not to be alarmed by any unusual noise that might proceed
from the Palace Enclosure on the night following the
delivery of the message. The noise, His Majesty ex-
plained, would arise from measures adopted, after con-
sultation with the Court Astrologers assembled in Council,
with a view to driving away a mischievous dragon, who
had of late carried his misdeeds to the point of cutting
off the topknots of the Guards on sentry-go at the very
gates of the palace. It had been decreed, by Order in
Council, that volleys of blank cartridge should be fired to
scare the audacious monster, bullets being useless against
an evil spirit, such as the dragon undoubtedly was, and
noise being particularly obnoxious to all Far Eastern
dragons. Is it not, as every Chinese and Korean knows,
noise, and noise alone, but of an ear-splitting potency
unknown in the West, that prevents the dragon from
entirely swallowing the sun, or the moon, when an eclipse

90 THE NEW PAR EAST.

takes place?* In the case of the topknot-collecting dragon
of Soul, the discharges of musketry had the usual effect
and also that of keeping the gallant American warrior-
diplomatist awake all night. The next morning His
Majesty was graciously pleased to inform him officially
that the dragon had been utterly routed and had dis-
appeared.

The Korean's attention to his sang-tu is not confined
to the hair composing it whilst actually growing on his
head. He carefully preserves every stray hair that falls
from it, or that is combed from it, throughout the year
until the eve of the New Year. On that night, a par-
ticularly malevolent spirit roams abroad In the guise of
a huge cat, and visits every Korean household, on the
look-out for shoes. Alas ! he is not animated by the kind
intentions of our own genial Father Christmas. Far from
him is the benevolent purpose of the German Christkind-
lein, the French Petit Noel, or the American " Santa
Klaus." His aim is solely to step into the shoes he may
find "dead men's shoes," indeed, for their owners will
die, or, at least, meet with terrible mishap offend a
powerful Yang-ban, perhaps, and be sentenced, for some
imaginary crime, to be cudgelled on the shins during the
coming year. It will be readily believed that on the last
night of the year Korean children are as anxious to hide
their shoes as little Occidentals are to leave theirs, and
their stockings, about at the festive season. Paterfamilias
sees to it that all shoes, those in use and cast-off ones,
are gathered together and locked up in a box in the sleep-
ing apartment, for he dreads the ghostly cat even more
than do the little ones, superstitions in the Far East
appearing to gain a firmer hold of the people with their

* A similar superstition exists in Mohammedan countries. I remember
seeing, at the time of the total lunar eclipse in February, 1888, a con-
stable of the Metropolitan Police of Cairo, in complete European uniform
(but for the red tarbush on his head), vigorously thumping his metal
tobacco-box in a pious endeavour to scare away the wolf that threatened
to swallow the moon

THE TOPKNOT AGAIN IN DANGER. 91

advancing years except, of course, in the case of the
sceptical New Japanese. No shoes being left for the cat
to step into, the household would seem to be insured
against his evil influence for the year to come, but the
head of a Korean family is determined to neglect no pre-
caution. He takes the family collection of stray hairs
not only those from the topknots of the married, or
betrothed, males, but also those from the long plaits
wound round the heads of the married women, and from
the pigtails of the little boys and the young girls carries
it out, in the evening twilight, into the street just before
his door, or the gate of his enclosure, and sets fire to it.
Then arises to the rapidly darkening sky a new odour,
and a vile one, to be added to the thousand stinks of a
Korean city. The spirit cat sniffs it from afar, his
olfactory sense revolts against it, he turns his ghostly tail
and departs probably to the distant rugged peaks, the
mysterious haunts of the topknot-cutting dragon.

Since the war, undertaken nominally in his interest,
between Japan and China, the Korean has undergone
greater anxiety on account of his topknot than at any
previous period. It has been threatened by a foe more
daring than the dragon, more dangerous than the spirit
cat. The reforming Japanese, marching in their thou-
sands to the Korean's unwilling regeneration, laying strong
hands on him to shake him out of his torpor of centuries,
were not to be scared with blank cartridge they faced
bullets unflinchingly and their noses, accustomed to the
well-manured fields of Japan, took scant notice of burning
hair. One of their first acts, on undertaking the heavy
task of Korean reform, was to cause the Government at
Soul at that time a willing tool to issue an edict abolish-
ing the topknot, and prescribing the "Occidental cut" in
its stead. Of all the unduly irritating decrees dictated,
along with many admirable, if often premature, measures
of reform, by the tactless zeal of Japanese " regenerators,"
(luring the first brief period of their sway at Soul, none

92 THE NEW FAR EAST.

exasperated the conservative Koreans more than this edict.
It was made the pretext for savage rioting, enabling the
Koreans to give vent to their hereditary hatred of the
Japanese. The progressive minority, favouring Japan, cut
off their topknots, and became objects of scorn in the
eyes of all the other Koreans. The Japanese gradually
recognised their mistake in attaching too great importance
to a matter of detail. It was, they soon found, the
inside of Korean skulls that needed reforming far more
urgently than the topknots ; the obnoxious " Hair-cutting
Ordinance" fell into abeyance and went the way of the
dragon and the spirit cat. In 1897, the topknot had
become entirely optional, and the more advanced thinkers,
the young men educated in Japan, or in Korea under
foreign guidance, wore their hair in the Western fashion,
whilst the great bulk of the nation retained the national
distinctive coiffure, or reverted to it in many cases where
it had been abandoned under Japanese compulsion. So
the topknot flourishes once more, and with it the Korean
hat.

The brim of the black hat varies in width from four
to nine inches ; in former times it far exceeded these
dimensions. For several generations, and as late as 1816,
the Yang-ban wore hats of immense size, the crown, about
nine inches high, being surrounded by a brim of such
width that the whole head-dress had a diameter of three
feet. These huge hats have their rivals, as to size, at the
present time in the umbrella-shaped hat of plaited bamboo,
with six indentations on the edge of the brim, under
which the Korean mourner hides his grief, and the port-
able roofs of plaited straw carried on the heads of the
rustics and the drivers of the bulls that are used as beasts
of burden. There is a tradition, firmly believed by every
Korean, and probably true by reason of its very Korean
quaintness, relating that in olden times the nation was
compelled, by royal decree, to wear hats of the enormous
size of the mourners' " extinguisher " of to-day (about

A KIN&S INVENTION. 93

three feet across), and of a similar shape, made of
earthenware !

The reason for the selection of such an apparently un-
suitable material, and of such unwieldy dimensions, for the
hat the Koreans were, it is said, compelled to wear is
still, according to tradition, typical of the quaint shrewd-
ness with which the legendary lore of the Far East
invests many of the ancient rulers. It is a peculiar sort
of cunning, causing the eyes of Orientals to flash with a
sly, appreciative twinkle as they relate instances of it, but,
on examination in the cold light of Occidental common-
sense, it appears futile and unpractical. In the case of
these porcelain hats, called torip, the ancient Korean king
is alleged to have introduced them in order to put a stop
to the continual riots and brawls that disturbed the country,
and to the numerous conspiracies that threatened his rule.
In those early days the Korean was, as he still is, a born
plotter and exceedingly fond of fighting not, indeed, of
the strife with weapons on the battle-field, but of a good
rough-and-tumble contest with fists and feet, cudgels and
stone-throwing, such as the lower classes indulge in to
this day, in the first month of the year, ward against
ward in a city, village against village in the country. To
him it is as much a " divarsion " as to any " broth of a
bhoy" in the palmy days of Donnybrook Fair. This
sportive pugnacity is not the only point of resemblance
between the characteristics of Koreans and Milesians ; both
races combine charm of manner with a disinclination
for sustained effort in serious matters ; both are much
attracted by politics of a militant sort. The condition
of an earthenware hat, "three feet in diameter, after a
lively scrimmage between rival factions, may be easily
imagined. Even that reproach to our civilisation, the
silk hat, would come better out of the fray.* Now,
a broken hat gives a disreputable appearance to its wearer

* It is extraordinary how the " reproach to our civilisation " continues
to flourish, in spite of the many attacks made upon it in the cause of

94 THE NEW FAR EAST.

in any civilised community ; in ancient Korea it entailed
more serious consequences than mere loss of outward
respectability. Its possession rendered the purchase of a
new hat unnecessary, as it involved, when brought under
official notice, the instant decapitation of the owner. Nor
was this the only advantage of the hat as a preserver of
the public peace ; it became simply impossible for the dis-
affected to put their heads together for the purpose of
plotting treason when their skulls were surrounded by
brittle brims a yard across. Shouted conspiracies succeed
only on the operatic stage.

To judge by the immaculate whiteness of the Yang-
bans clothing, one would naturally suppose that he must
be as observant of bodily cleanliness as the Japanese.
Appearances are notoriously deceptive, and notably in this
case. The Korean's clothes are, indeed, scrupulously clean.
They are very frequently washed, and beaten with a
heavy smooth stick, vigorously plied by the muscular
women, until that degree of gloss is obtained that makes
them look like white, faintly bluish, porcelain ; in fact,
they are sent to the wash so often, and taken to pieces
(as in Japan) every time, that they are, as a rule, not
sewn, but pasted together with starch. The loss of time,
and the trouble, that would be involved in the unpicking
and re-sewing are thus avoided. This agreeable cleanli-
ness, common to the clothing of all Koreans not of the
lowest class, does not, unfortunately, extend to their bodies.
The Yang-ban keeps his slender hands (all Koreans have
small, well-shaped hands and feet) perfectly clean and soft,
but for his face "a lick and a wipe" are considered suf-
ficient. The great bulk of the nation is dirty beyond
description, not only because of the utter want of ablutions,
save when fording a stream, but on account of various un-
sanitary sins, both of omission and of commission, whereof

common-sense and of art. Every writer who mentions it has a bitter word
for it, but in vain. I have just had my fling here at the hated
monstrosity and I shall wear one to Church next Sunday 1

SOME KOREAN CUSTOMS. 95

the absence of handkerchiefs of any sort is the least. So
absolutely primitive are the Korean notions on the sewage
question that it is often difficult to find a spot on the
grassy banks of a high road, near a village, on which it
is possible to sit down. Even the Yang-ban, cultured as
he is, from the Korean point of view, dignified and ex-
quisitely courteous, from ours, has some customs which
are difficult to describe. For instance, when he goes into
society, he ie invariably accompanied by an attendant
bearing a round brass pot, used occasionally as a receptacle
for the ashes of tobacco, and as a spittoon, but the main
purpose of which is simply that of the Occidental vessel
usually kept in what Tottenham Court Road furniture-
catalogues euphemistically call a "pedestal." This vase
is as much part of his personal equipage as his long pipe,
his constant companion.

The Koreans have been inveterate smokers ever since
the Japanese, in the seventeenth century, passed on to
them the habit they had just acquired from the Portu-
guese. Their home-grown tobacco is very mild in the
manufactured state, but the poorer people use the coarse
leaf merely dried in the sun and roughly broken up, pro-
ducing smoke that should be a valuable defence against
the spirit cat, as its odour is about as pungent as that of
burning hair. The pipe has a bowl of brass, or, if its
possessor be wealthy, of jade, the stem is straight, about
three feet in length, and the mouthpiece of metal, or, in
the costly pipes, of amber or of jade. The management
of a pipe of such length, which rarely leaves the Korean's
lips for more than a few moments, requires considerable
skill it renders rapid motion, or violent exercise, almost
impossible. This is hardly a serious drawback in the eyes
of a race usually averse to any unnecessary exertion, and
having absolutely no notion of the value of time. When,
for any reason, the Korean wants to have both his hands
free, he thrusts his long pipe into the silken cord worn
as a girdle, sometimes into a pipe-bag attached thereto,

96 THE NEW FAR EAST.

or he puts the pipe up his sleeve, or sticks it down the
nape of his neck, between his inner and outer clothing.
There is one occasion on which the Korean, if he be wise,
certainly takes his pipe out of his mouth. That is, when
an official of rank is coming along the street, perched
high up on a towering saddle under which a little pony
is almost concealed, an attendant supporting the great
man's knee on either side or borne aloft in a chair, with
a leopard-skin thrown over the back of it. A motley
rabble of lackeys and of so-called "soldiers," hangers-on
who act as orderlies, and constables, and run, fetch, and
carry for the official, precedes, surrounds, and follows
him. These men clear the way with much shouting and
many sounding blows administered, right and left, with
their long, flat wooden staves, not unlike a Harlequin's
wand, but much thicker. Woe to the luckless wight who
disregards their shouts of " Pipes out ! " In an instant
his pipe is taken from him, broken into pieces that are
thrown away, and his head receives smart whacks from
the lictor's fan. (Everybody in Korea carries a fan, at
all seasons, on ceremonial occasions, and, in summer, all
day long.) Under Japanese influence, the Korean Reform
Government of 1895 discouraged the use of the long pipe
as much as it did the topknot. It tried to abolish the
three-foot stem as being conducive to idleness. For a
time there was trouble in the land, as there always is
amongst people whom someone is trying to "regenerate,"
but when the pendulum swung back towards a more
Korean policy to be followed by a term of paramount
Russian influence, which in turn gave way, in 1898, to
Japanese guidance, wiser and more gentle than that
attempted after the war the long pipes reappeared un-
molested.

I have said that the Koreans, as a race, are dirty in
their habits. Some idea of the want of bodily cleanliness
amongst the majority of the people may be gained from
the simple statement that the average Korean of the

HOW THE KOREANS WOOED THEIR EMPEROR. 97

middle and lower classes is completely washed at his birth
and at his death, and, perchance, once in between, probably
on his wedding-day.

There is, however, a ray of hope of reform in this
matter. It is evident that a new era is being heralded
for the grimy folk of Korea under the auspices of the
highest in the land. A memorial was presented to the
King of Korea by the High Officers of State, first in October,
1895, and then repeatedly in the course of the years
1896 and 1897, P ra yi n g that His Majesty would deign to
set the seal on Korean independence by assuming the title
of Emperor. His Majesty, who is as modest as he is
charming in manner and kindly of heart, was rather coy
and did not show any unseemly haste in acceding to the
prayer of the memorialists. Indeed, I rather fancy it must
have been His Majesty himself w r ho inspired the argument
brought forward by the small minority in the Cabinet,
who urged that "the strength of the nation secures the
independence of a state, not the title of the ruler." The
memorialists were, however, not to be denied. They "got
up" petitions, in a manner not unknown in the West,
from different classes of the population, most of whom
did not care a straw whether their ruler changed his title
or not. These remaining ineffective, in September, 1897,
they played their trump-card. For three successive days,
from the ist to the 3rd of October, 1897, all the high
officials of the Government, led by the Prime Minister,
knelt in the courtyard of the palace, from two till six p.m.,
beseeching His Majesty to grant their petition, which
had already been laid eight times at the foot of the throne.
The strict regulations of the Court of Soul demanded that
it should be presented a ninth time. The kneeling states-
men, suffering by this time from "pins and needles" in
their legs, again brought their memorial, couched, as
before, in the classic style of ancient China and His
Majesty yielded. The Court Astrologers fixed the seven-
teenth day of the ninth moon, otherwise the I2th of
H

98 THE NEW FAR EAST.

October, 1897, as the most auspicious day for the imposing
ceremonial of the assumption of the Imperial title, quite
forgetting to mention that a steady downpour of rain
would drench the brilliant throng of courtiers to the skin.
Amidst the downpour, His Majesty Li-hsi, clad in
Imperial yellow, instead of the royal scarlet hitherto worn
by him, was proclaimed Whang- Che i, or Emperor, of
Dai-Han, the new name bestowed on Korea and nobody
has since been "a penny the worse," or the better.

What can have been the high motive that, at last,
decided His Majesty to yield to the entreaties of his
Ministers ? Can it have been the spectacle of the vast
courtyard filled, for four long hours on three consecutive
afternoons, with elderly statesmen, some presumably rheu-
matic, kneeling on the cold stones ? No, it was un-
doubtedly at least, so it must seem to the Occidental
mind His Majesty's intense admiration for the patriotic
sacrifice implied in the last sentence of the memorial :
"After fasting and washing, we unanimously beg your
Majesty to grant us this petition."

99

CHAPTER III.
THE MEN OF NEW JAPAN.

I HAVE described, in the foregoing Chapter, the outward
characteristics of the men who compose the bulk of the
ruling classes in the Three Empires of the Far East ; the
object of the present Chapter is to give some account ot
the ideas that actuate them in their dealings with each
other and with us of the West. I shall attempt to trace
the working of the brains under the Parting, the Pigtail,
and the Topknot ; I shall endeavour to describe the spirit
dwelling in the hearts that beat under the silken kimono
of the Shi-zoku, the embroidered robe of the Mandarin,
and the white cotton gown of the Yang-ban.

It may appear strange that I have not chosen any
representative Far Eastern men from the ranks of the
People, with a capital P, a factor we hear of so frequently,
and know so little, in the West, and that is commonly
supposed to wield such great power in the politics of the
white races. In the Far East, the Masses do not, as yet,
exercise any appreciable influence on the conduct of public
affairs, although their alleged feelings, their opinions and
prejudices, represented as ineradicable, are brought for-
ward, whenever the occasion arises, by astute Oriental
statesmen anxious to oppose a clinching " non possumus "
to an Occidental Power's demand or advice. "It cannot
be done. It is against the popular feeling. If we
attempted it we would have a revolution, and then your
commerce would suffer. Of course, we appreciate the

ioo THE NEW FAR EAST.

justice of your demands" (or, "the absolutely dis-
interested nature of your advice"), but the People are not
yet sufficiently enlightened ; the People would rise to a
man." How often have Western diplomatists had to
listen to such representations, and how often have they
swallowed them whole ! Were closer attention bestowed
in the West on Far Eastern affairs in ordinary times
not, as is unfortunately the case, only when black clouds
gather on the Eastern horizon itr would be noticed how
frequently the alleged determination of the People to
resist, unto death, some proposed measure of Western
origin, melts into thin air as soon as it suits the Oriental
Government to enforce it, at some other time, as an
innovation of its own, to suit its own purposes. The
Chinese Mandarins have, by long practice, become experts
in the use of this stratagem of statecraft. To hear their
protestations one would think that no European politician
"playing to the gallery," no American Populist candidate
seeking the votes of the Many-headed, could be more
tenderly careful of the feelings of the People. As a
matter of fact, nowhere are those feelings so skilfully
manipulated, so easily controlled by the ruling class, as
in China, the country where a whisper from a Mandarin
can, and often does, fan the passions of the mob into
lurid flames and cause blood-curdling massacres.

In Japan, too, the People are well in hand, but, owing
to their superior enlightenment, and to the safeguards
guaranteed to them by constitutional government and by
the press (vigilant, though under restraint), they require
very careful handling. The ability to influence the masses
wisely is, fortunately for Japan, abundant amongst their
natural leaders, the gentry, or Shi-zoku, from whom the
bulk of the nation still derives its opinions in public
matters. In Korea, the poor, down -trodden, shiftless
masses are at the mercy of the Yang-ban, and "take
the time of day" from "the quality." In none of
the three Empires does " public opinion " originate

" THE PEOPLE. " TO i

spontaneously from the mass of the People. But does
it in the most self-governed Occidental countries ? Ask
the vicar and the curate, the parish priest and the
minister, the keeper of the " Nonconformist conscience " ;
inquire of the labour leader, of the editor of a political
journal, and, especially, of the experienced wire-puller
at the headquarters of any political party.

If the Occidental popular mind is often made up in
a way inscrutable to those not, to use an expressive
vulgarism, "in the know," the workings of its counter-
part in the Far East, and especially in China, are still
more mysterious. Everything may be going on smoothly
amidst perfect calm ; all at once a mysterious Someone,
unknown and never to be discovered, gives a sign and
millions are impelled to action, so deeply stirred that the
movement bears all the appearances of proceeding entirely
from a genuine popular impulse. Such inexplicable com-
motions have subverted great Empires in the Far East,
they have changed dynasties and embroiled nations in
wars ; at other times they have subsided as suddenly, as
unaccountably, as they arose. The mysterious Someone
has again made a signal, and everything has returned to
its normal condition.* Multitudes have abandoned a

* These mysterious popular ferments are not confined to the Mongolian
races. They exist in the Aryan and the Semitic East. Whole shelves
are filled with histories of the Indian Mutiny, but the true story of its
inception has yet to be written. Even its repression has its mysteries.
What became of Nana Sahib ? We have hanged Damodar Chapekar for
the Poona murders of Jubilee Day, 1897, but what do we know of the
conspiracy whose tool he was ? The Behar Mango-Tree-Smearing Mystery of
1894 is still unexplained, baffling our most astute " Politicals." The truth
is not yet known, and probably never will be, as to the Great Diamond
Case of 1891, when that gifted and mysterious person I know him well
who deals in precious stones under the assumed name of "Mr. Jacob,"
immortalised by Marion Crawford as " Mr. Isaacs," defied the Nizam cf
Hyderabad, and the British Raj to boot, and came off scot-free. What
do we know of the hidden springs that actuate the onward movement of
Babism in Persia, or of those that made Mahdism a devastating power ?
And who can clearly trace the extraordinary Revival of Islam, in the last
quarter of the nineteenth century, to its source ?

102 THE NEW FAR EAST.

movement, that seemed deeply rooted, as unanimously as
they took it up. The Far East thinks and acts by millions.

Although the masses in Eastern Asia are so easily
led by those to whom they look for guidance in China
this is facilitated by the purely democratic spirit of its
institutions, those in power being, frequently, of very
humble origin, and, consequently, understanding the People
thoroughly although the lower classes are docile and
law-abiding to a remarkable degree, there is a point
beyond which it is not safe to push them. In China,
where the Mandarin is vested with such, apparently,
tremendous power ; in Japan, whose Government has
stringent Press laws, and a perfect system of detective
and repressive police at its -disposal ; in Korea, where the
poor man is delivered into the hands of the aristocracy
in all three Empires there are limits, well-defined for
those who know them, that the rulers dare not over-step.
To ignore these bounds would at once transform the
patient, toiling millions into fierce, irresistible multitudes,
whole races in arms in a cataclysm that would sweep
away the imprudent rulers and their work. And the rulers
know it. The West, apparently, does not, to judge by
what is daily written and spoken about the future of the
Far East. Whenever the opportunity occurs in these
pages, I shall strive to indicate these points of utmost
strain to which the docility of Chinese, Japanese, or
Koreans, can be subjected.

In dealing with the mental characteristics and natural
dispositions of the predominant classes in Eastern Asia,
I propose to consider the Japanese first, because it was
the Empire of the Rising Sun that gave the Old Far East
its death-blow. vhe New Far East is the Far East as
Japan has made it by her adaptation of Occidental civilisa-
tion, and by the results of the policy towards her neigh-
bours the new methods enabled her to pursue.\ This
policy, although only partially successful, so far, and
productive of some momentous consequences not foreseen

fAPAN, OLD AND NEW. 103

by its originators, entitles Japan to be considered as the
paramount Asiatic factor in the Far Eastern Question.
Inactive partly owing to wise, patient statesmanship,
partly on account of difficult financial and economic cir-
cumstances whilst the hubbub of the Occidental " scramble
for China" raged most fiercely in her immediate vicinity,
she wields, by her very reserve, tremendous potential
influence. IQuietly and steadily doubling her already
formidable sea -power, unremittingly strengthening and
improving her splendid army, she is daily increasing the
value of her alliance to the nation fortunate enough to
secure iE\ Without firing a shot, she obtained in Korea,
early in 1898, what must appear, in the eyes of the East,
a great victory over Russia, whatever its results may be
in later years7\ And, above all, her position of prudent
restraint has gained for her in China a moral victory
greater, by far, than any material land-grabbing, or con-
cession-snatching, success she might have achieved. Japan
holds the key of the Far Eastern position. It is her ruling
class we must study first if we wish to have a clue to
the solution of the Far Eastern problem.

If we consider the various estimates of the Japanese
character formed by the Occidentals who have enjoyed
the best opportunities of studying it from Saint Francis
Xavier to Mr. Lafcadio Hearn, from Will Adams, "Pilot
Maior," of Gillingham, Kent, to Professor Basil Hall
Chamberlain, through a long series of observers, mission-
aries, merchants, diplomatists, sailors, men of science,
poets, and travellers we must be struck by the extra-
ordinary diversity of their views. On the one hand, from
good St. Francis Xavier's warm-hearted appreciation of
the Japanese of the middle of the sixteenth century :
"This nation is the delight of my soul," and honest Will
Adams's encomium of those of fifty years later : " The
people of this Hand of lapon are good of nature, curteous
aboue measure and valiant in warre ; their iustice is
seuerely executed without any partialitie. . . . They are

104 THE NEW FAR EAST.

gouerned in great ciuilitie . . . not a land better gouerned
in the world by ciuil policie . . . /' confirmed nearly a
century afterwards by Engelbert Kaempfer, the observant
German surgeon, who wrote : " In the practice of virtue,
in purity of life, and outward devotion, they far out-do
the Christians . . . ," down to the glowing poetic eulogies
from the pen of Sir Edwin Arnold, and the exquisite prose-
pictures of Lafcadio Hearn, in our day, praise has been
lavished on the Japanese by men whose judgment must
command our respect.

Unfortunately for the puzzled inquirer, an array of
other eminent men stands opposed to these laudators with
condemnation as severe as language can express. We
may take for what they are worth the angry diatribes
written in the early 'sixties by men who were in constant
danger of their lives amongst a population on whom they
were forcing, vi et armis, their unwelcome presence, the
plaints of baffled diplomatists, tired out by Oriental pro-
crastination, designed to gain time, and overmatched by
Asiatic cunning ; we may dismiss the spiteful utterances,
frequent to this day, of disappointed would-be exploiters,
of sorrowing concession-hunters, and of irritated Occidentals,
chafing in their voluntary exile, who belong to the
numerous class to whom any Oriental is, morally, a
"nigger," when he is not a "damned nigger." To such
people, daily contact with a proud race, more intellectual,
more polished, more truly cultured than their own coarse
selves, becomes exasperating to a degree. If we put
aside as untrustworthy the opinions of the classes just
enumerated, we cannot entirely disregard the deliberately
expressed views of some trained observers, of men of
science versed in psychology, of shrewd lawyers and level-
headed merchants, who find but little to praise in the
Japanese character, but much to blame, and to blame
strongly and honestly not, as is the case with some
travellers, merely for the sake of the supposed dis-
tinction to be obtained by differing from the majority

CONFLICTING TESTIMONIES. 105

of judges, nor, like certain "smart" journalists, in order
to raise a silly laugh by cheap and vulgar ridicule, or to
start a "boom" by unexpected violent denunciation.
Nor can we neglect to take into account the faint praise
wherewith some eminent authorities, who have enjoyed
exceptional opportunities, have condemned the Japanese
in more or less guarded remarks, whose sub-acid flavour
is perceptible through the very thin coating of sugar.
And, lastly, what are we to think of the remarkable
discrepancy between the opinions of our friend who has
returned enraptured, after a stay of a month or two
amongst "the most charming people in the most
delightful country . in the world," and who wants to
revisit it soon (every traveller does), and those of that
other friend of ours, come "home" for a holiday, who
tells us savagely that Japan, the land where he earns
his living by the sweat of his brow a state of perspiration
often induced by the various forms of violent bodily
exercise that occupy a considerable portion of his bitter
exile, football, for instance is an overrated country,
peopled by a race of arrogant pigmies, of debased morals
and limited intellect ?

If we go deeper into all this conflicting evidence our
confusion will grow worse confounded. We shall find the
modern Japanese described as a gentle creature, so full of
the milk of human kindness that he will pay for Buddhist
prayers to be said for the soul of his dead dog, or cat,
or ox, and cheerfully disburse thirty Sen for the decent
burial, in the grounds of a temple, with a short service,
of his lamented fourfooted friend, occasionally even a
larger sum, so that poor doggie, or puss, may have a
mortuary tablet, or ihai, to keep its memory green. We
shall also find him held up to execration as a cruel
savage, revelling in scenes of carnage, maddened by the
smell of blood, perpetrating nameless atrocities on a
vanquished, defenceless foe, and so callous to the suffer-
ings of the brute creation that he eats fish alive, IOT

io6 THE NEW FAR EAST.

choice, crimping it so deftly that the slices are held
together only by the backbone, and fall asunder through
the quivering induced by the addition of vinegar-sauce.*
Horrible I Yes, just a little more horrible than the
Occidental modes of skinning eels alive, of crimping cod,
or of boiling lobsters and crabs in the full enjoyment of
life and health. Go to Billingsgate Market, and hear the
awful sound, a sort of hissing moan, when the great iron
cage descends into the deep tank of boiling water with
its freight of living Crustacea !

We are told, at the same time, that the Japanese are of
the sweetly simple, lovable disposition indicated by their
extreme fondness for children and their unvarying kindness
to them, extending even to the provision, in their pantheon,
of a special divinity to watch over the little ones,t and
of another, Hotel, a jolly, plump, smiling god, for them
to romp with. On the other hand, we are warned to
beware of the Japanese. They are, it is alleged, a danger
to the white races, for their much-vaunted progress has
been only in things material ; their adaptation of our
civilisation has merely laid a thin veneer over their native
savageness. Hence our peril, we are told, and we are
asked to consider the awful probability of a conflict some
day with a determined race, hating us bitterly, turning
against the West the weapons, the organisation and the
training originally borrowed from it, but remaining at
heart ruthless barbarians capable of the most fiendish
atrocities. To those who thus warn us any argument
seems futile. They at once meet it with two words :
" Port Arthur." In their opinion, and, unfortunately, in
that of a vast number of Occidentals, that closes the dis-

* The custom of crimping and eating alive the carp (koi) or the tat,
the succulent sea-bream, is far less common than it was, although raw fish
is still a favourite dish, sliced, as sashimi, or, under the name of namasit,
with vinegar and cold stewed vegetables.

t The Buddhist divinity Jizo (in Sanskrit : Kshitigarbha), who typifies
Compassion. Represented with the shaven head of a Buddhist priest, and
a sweet expression of benevolence on his features, he holds in one hand

STONING JAPAN 107

cussion. The cruel massacre by the victorious Japanese
troops of a great part of the Chinese inhabitants of Port
Arthur is, indeed, a blot on Japan's escutcheon, but before
deciding to accept it as conclusive proof of the whole
nation's incapacity for true civilisation we should re-
member the circumstances in which the dreadful deed
was wrought. The massacre has been described ad
nauseam in lurid columns of "expanded" telegrams, and
of picturesquely gruesome " descriptive reporting," in the
Western press ; it has been brought before our eyes in
sketches by special artists and in revolting photographs,
the latter, it is to be feared, not always as truthful as
sun-pictures are commonly supposed to be.* The more
sensational of the English newspapers, knowing the
insatiable appetite of their patrons for plenty of gore
with their breakfasts, and those American periodicals that
have since become notorious as "Yellow Journals,"
gloated over sickening details and emphasised them by
"scare headlines." Nothing was neglected that could help
to publish Japan's shame to the Western world. But
how many of the journals that disseminated the detailed
news of the massacre had the fairness to give equal

the mystic jewel, the nio-i hojiu, that procures the fulfilment of all desires,
in the other the shaku-jo, the staff with six clanking iron rings at the top,
carried by mendicant priests. His smiling effigy is to be found all over
Japan, more frequently than that of any other god. He is the Helper
of all who travel, of women pregnant and in travail, and, generally, of all
creatures in trouble, but especially of children. The souls of dead children
are exposed to the risk of cruel treatment when they reach the Japanese
Styx, the River of the Three Roads (San-dzu-no Kawa). On its banks lurks
the Shozuka-no Baba, a hideous old hag who robs them of their clothes.
Once across the Styx, further trials are in store for the children. On
the banks of another river of Hades, the River of Souls (Sai-no Kawara),
the poor little souls are condemned to the never-ending piling- up of
pebbles, until kind Jizo comes to their rescue. So, to lighten the labours
of the little dead, all children, and many kind-hearted adults, when they
pass a statue of Jizo, deposit a pebble at its base. It counts one to some
tiny toiling spirit in the nether world. Some Missionaries, and some
"enlightened" Japanese, look upon this act as a gross superstition, and
one to be speedily abolished. I do not envy their frame of mind.

* My friend, Major H. Van der Weyde, M.J.S., the well-known expert in

io8 THE NEW FAR EAST.

publicity to the cause of the slaughter ? Very few ;
some newspapers never mentioned the cause at all.
Justice demands that the world should know that the
lust of killing which possessed the Japanese on the day
of the capture of Port Arthur was the fury of revenge.
Every Japanese soldier who "ran amok" on that dire
day was the avenger of his unfortunate comrades, cap-
tured, wounded and helpless, by the enemy during the
attack on the great stronghold, and put to horrible, linger-
ing death by fiendish tortures such as only the cruelty of
Chinese minds can conceive. The best-disciplined troops
of the phlegmatic Northern nations would have been
maddened beyond control by the awful sights that met
the eyes of the Japanese as they entered the captured
town on that fateful 2ist of November, 1894, a ^ er
storming its defences, till then considered almost im-
pregnable. I will not stain these pages by a description
of the appalling evidences of Chinese barbarities that
infuriated the Japanese, nor of the terrible reprisals that
followed. Suffice it to say that the Japanese soldiers simply
went mad for the space of some hours mad with the lust
for blood, the terrible craving to kill, and kill, and kill,
without caring whom or how, that has, even in this century,
possessed some of the most rigidly-trained European troops.

photography, who has had experience of battlefields during the American Civil
War, made a careful examination of one of the most widely-circulated of
these gruesome photographs, and unhesitatingly pronounced it to be a
"faked" picture, cunningly "staged" with a view to sensational effect.
The bodies of slaughtered Chinese had been so arranged, and some
Japanese soldiers with fixed bayonets and drawn swords posed in such
attitudes as to convey the impression that the photograph was an actual
"snap-shot" taken during the massacre. The attention of certain London
journals that were chiefly instrumental in disseminating circumstantial reports
of the massacre, or in publishing photographs alleged to represent it, was
called to the result of Major Van der Weyde's investigation, but in vain.
An important newspaper, that had shown reluctance to publish details
until the fullest inquiry had been made, was then approached, and pleaded,
privately, that it could not take up the matter, as it would involve criticism
of the methods employed by influential contemporaries "a breach of
journalistic etiquette."

FROM GLASS HOUSES. 109

We need not go back to the days of the Peninsular
War for an instance of such "red fury" on the part of
British troops, although the ghastly orgies that disgraced
Wellington's heroes at Badajoz at once recur to us. In
that case, there is no faintest trace of an excuse for the
devilry that made the town just stormed a town in-
habited, moreover, by the very people whom the besiegers
had come to rescue from a foreign foe a prey to murder,
rapine, and debauchery. The mad fit passed away, but
not before the raving soldiery had killed several of their
own officers who had tried to curb their frenzy. If
evidence be needed that such terrible deeds inspired,
however, by revenge, a nobler feeling than the gross lust
of pillage at Badajoz have been committed by British
soldiers within the memory of living men, we have but
to ask anyone who saw and shuddered at the vengeance
wreaked upon the mutineers at Delhi, and elsewhere, to
the cry of " Remember Cawnpore ! " And not on the
mutinous Sepoys only, but on many others of their race.
In such hours of revenge, but little discrimination is made
between the innocent and the guilty. Not all the French
villagers (women among them) who were shot by the
Bavarians amidst the blazing ruins of Bazeilles on the
fateful day of Sedan, had fired from their windows on the
German troops. When the French Army of Order had
fought its way from Versailles into rebellious Paris, a
grimy face and dirty hands were accounted proof positive
that a man was a Communard; dishevelled hair and poor
clothing sufficed to convict a woman, old or young, of
being a Petroleuse on such evidence they were added to
the long files of the condemned, placed against the nearest
wall, and shot, or bayoneted, by hundreds, in cold blood.
When the soldiers of the Tsar, acting under orders from
high quarters, destroyed a whole tribe of Turkomans, as a
" salutary example," none were spared ; the doomed tribe
was annihilated, root and branch.

All these facts were forgotten in the storm of indigna-

no THE NEW FAR EAST.

tion raised by the news of the massacre at Port Arthur,
and Japanls^ numerous enemies took care to improve the
occasion. IThe impression produced on the Western mind
was a lasting one, especially in Great Britain. When, in
the winter of 1897-8, an alliance, or, at least, a co-
operation for the defence of common interests in the Far
East, seemed on the point of being arranged between
Britain and Japan, a warning cry went up from thousands
of well-meaning people, strenuously opposing the idea of
an alliance with a "heathen nation" capable of barbarities
such as those perpetrated by the Japanese at Port Arthur^
From the sententious editor of a high-class weekly review
to the indignant working man writing to a popular daily,
the " Great Heart of the Nation " was stirred to excited
protest. Cool reflection, and a closer investigation of the
facts, brought the public gradually into a more judicious
frame of mind, but the mischief done was almost irre-
parable ; the " psychological moment " had gone by, a
jarring note had been struck, and the opportunity was
missed of concluding an understanding, based on national
feeling in both countries, that would have altered, to
the benefit ^>f both, the whole course of events in the
Far East. I The harm done was all the greater because
the feeling against Japan, arising entirely from the Port
Arthur massacre, had reached circles not easily influenced
by waves of popular sentimentr\ It is no secret that in
august regions, the British equivalent of those described
in the courtly language of Japan as " Above the Clouds,"
the indignation caused by the news of the massacre left
lasting traces ; and this is not to be wondered at when
we think of the kind, sympathetic heart of the Lady of
this Realm, shocked beyond expression by the tale of
cruel deeds.

For much of this mischief the Japanese Government
has only itself to blame. In the matter of the massacre
it acted with a want of candour and of resolution
that seems incomprehensible to anyone not thoroughly

JAPAN'S LACK OF CANDOUR. in

acquainted with the Japanese spirit. At first, semi-
officially inspired versions were put into circulation,
toning down the facts, as far as possible, and attributing
the massacre to the Transport " Coolies " and military
labourers who followed the Japanese army rough,
ignorant men, we were told, not properly subjected to
military discipline (this was untrue, for the Japanese
Provost-Marshal kept them, as a rule, in excellent order)
and apt to use the dirks (waki-zashi) many of them
carried, especially when under the influence of deep
potations of sake. When the reports of war corre-
spondents, and the sketches of special artists, who had
been eye-witnesses of part, at least, of the massacre, made
it impossible to conceal the truth, a Mr. Ariga a clever
Japanese lawyer, who was, with great foresight, attached
as Legal Adviser to the Army Headquarters, in case of
any incident arising that might involve a point of inter-
national law was " turned on " to try and explain away
the worst features of the affair. He was to reason with
the foreign journalists and to endeavour to persuade them
that it was not a "massacre" at all, but only the "per-
fectly legitimate " killing of Chinese soldiers, who had,
as was their wont, thrown away in the hour of defeat
the upper jacket and the hat, or the turban, by which
the clothing of the Chinese " Brave " is distinguished from
that of the civilian.* The facts that they were unarmed
and unresisting, and, consequently, entitled to be treated
as prisoners of war; that no notice had been given that
quarter would be refused to them as a reprisal for their
torture and murder of the Japanese wounded; and, lastly,
that many of the victims were women and children all
these were airily brushed aside by the plausible Mr.
Ariga; yet his efforts failed. Clever international lawyer

* This was the view embodied in the despatch addressed by the late
Count Mutsu (then Minister for Foreign Affairs) to the Japanese Repre-
sentatives abroad in December, 1894. It also alleged that such of the
inhabitants as remained in Port Arthur after its investment were armed
ind fired on the Japanese.

ii2 THE NEW FAR EAST.

and plausible pleader he might be and I have the pleasure
of knowing him as an amiable personification of that type,
so well-known in Germany and in Austria, the " Pacifica-
tory Court Councillor" (Beschwichtigungs - Ho/rat} his
case was too hopelessly bad. Finding it impossible to
persist in denials, or in transparent excuses, the Japanese
Government appointed a Commission of Inquiry as a
sop to Occidental public opinion. We know that Com-
mission of Enquiry it comes from Whitehall, from the
banks of the Seine, from Vienna, from Washington, from
any part of the world where there are inquisitive Members
of Parliament, pressmen who raise a "boom," or any
other inconvenient persons to be lulled into inactivity.
The Commission may have " inquired " ; it has kept its
findings strictly secret, for it has not been heard of since
its appointment, and, probably, never will be.

A final and grave blunder, from the Occidental point
of view, was committed by the Japanese Government.
The best work on the war with China that has hitherto
appeared is, undoubtedly, The China-Japan War, by an
able writer who veils his identity under the pseudonym
of " Vladimir, lately of the **** Diplomatic Mission to
Corea." This instructive book, published (with illustrations
and clear maps) in London (by Messrs. Sampson Low,
Marston and Company, Limited) in 1896, bears plain
indications of its having been, if not officially inspired by
the Japanese Government, at all events written by
someone in close touch with it. Only in one particular
the Port Arthur massacre does this in any way detract
from its value as a trustworthy historical work, for, as
"Vladimir" writes in his introductory remarks headed
" To My Readers " : " My preference for Japanese sources
does not affect the impartiality of the narration the
Japanese have been uniformly fair to their adversaries, far
more just than their own countrymen ; and it has always
been easier to find the truth in the histories of the victors
than in those of the vanquished. The former have greater

A JAPANESE PUZZLE 113

self-possession, see events more clearly, and can afford to
be impartial." Where the book seriously fails is in the
omission of any mention of the massacre. An admirably
clear and concise account of the capture of Port Arthur is
given, even a description of the rejoicings with which the
Japanese celebrated their victory, including the quotation
of patriotic verses recited by General Nishi at the Officers'
Banquet but not a word about the massacre ! Here the
influence of Japanese officialdom is plainly evident. No,
"Vladimir," that may be the way in which history is
only too often written ; it is not the way to write
history !

What was the reason that prompted this strange
apparent lack of wisdom on the part of a Government
otherwise remarkably sagacious ? What could have in-
duced Ministers, at all other times so palpably anxious
to make a favourable impression on the Western Powers,
thus to flout the unanimous opinion of Christendom ?
The answer is : because one of those points had been
reached, of which I have spoken earlier in this Chapter,
one of those limits beyond which a Far Eastern Govern-
ment fears to proceed. Here we have a striking illustra-
tion of the truth I have endeavoured to explain. A
powerful Government was in the heyday of success, its
policy seemingly justified by an uninterrupted succession
of victories abroad, its every act ratified by a truly
patriotic Parliament, transformed by the declaration ot
war against China, as if by magic, from a squabbling
congress of petty politicians, split up into mutually hostile
groups, into a grave assembly united in the face of a
national crisis. The Government had, as every Japanese
Cabinet has, all the power at its disposal that a Con-
stitution, modelled on that of Prussia, can confer, yet
it did not dare to take the right course for fear of the
consequences. It knew the danger of any action on its
part which would have seemed to cast a slur on the
army, Japan's pride, that had just gained the great prize
I

ii4 THE NEW FAR EAST.

of the whole campaign, Port Arthur, the fortress reputed
impregnable throughout the Far East. [Any reprimand
addressed to the soldiers at the front would have been
looked upon by the people in Japan as an insult to the
whole nation ; moreover it would, of necessity, have
included the officers who failed to restrain their men, and
the chief who was immediately responsible for the storm-
ing of Port Arthurs-Lieutenant - General Yamaji. Now,
Lieutenant - General Yamaji, the grim and taciturn com-
mander of the First Division of the Second Army Corps,
the " One - eyed Dragon," as his soldiers called him*
he had lost an eye in his youth was the darling of his
troops. To censure him, the bravest of the brave, the
warrior as modest and unassuming as he was daring,
stern and resolute, the very incarnation of the Japanese
knightly spirit that was a task no Japanese Minister of
War would care to undertake on the morrow of the
<f One-eyed Dragon's" great victory, or even at the close
of an uniformly successful campaign. One, and one alone,
could have administered a reprimand to those in fault
without risk of causing dangerous discontent in the army
and without fear of popular resentment the Emperor's
rebuke would have been unhesitatingly accepted as de-
served, but there is little doubt that, had it been spoken,
numerous cases would have occurred of both officers and
men seeking death by their own swords as preferable to
life under the stigma of Imperial displeasure at their con-
duct in war. Japanese Ministers, however,- are far too
prudent to make any but the most sparing use of the
immense power latent in the person of the Sovereign,

* The Dragon is, in the Far East, symbolic of supernatural strength,
intellect, and power. The Japanese Press bestowed the same epithet
"One-eyed Dragon " on another famous man who had only one eye
Gambetta (" k Borgne de Cahors"). The Japanese who studied European
politics in his time were fascinated by the patriotism, the energy, the
fiery eloquence, and especially the pluck of the great Tribune. They can-
not understand, and do not admire, our cold, flabby, vacillating, entirely
unheroic, British " Statesmen " of the average type.

AND A JAPANESE PROBLEM. 115

\vhich is only exercised in moments of the gravest national
emergency. Imperial intervention being, in this case, out
of the question, the Japanese Government had to choose
between offending their own people and ignoring the
public opinion of the West. They decided on the latter
course, and the fact is worth noting, as a similar dilemma
may present itself at some future time. The Japanese
Minister who is able to solve it satisfactorily will be a
great statesman indeed.

The detractors of Japan are ill-advised in dwell-
ing too strongly on the unfortunate Port Arthur episode,
as its consideration may lead those whom they seek to
influence to make inquiry into the whole subject of the
general behaviour of the victors during the war with
China. The result of such an investigation must be a
feeling of profound admiration for the Japanese. All who
study impartially the history of the struggle in the Far
East in the years 1894 and 1895 must recognise the
existence of features in their national character that
entitle them to a place not only amongst the nations
we are agreed to call "civilised," but amongst the fore-
most races of the world, those that help to mould
the destinies of mankind. Of their virility as a nation
they gave conclusive proof from the very inception of
the conflict, completely refuting the opinion, so often
expressed by many who professed to know them well,
that they were a race of clever children, with the en-
gaging ways of children and their incapacity for serious
thought, or earnest, persevering endeavour. Strangely
enough, this erroneous estimate frequently emanated from
observers of French nationality, the very ones that might,
with some show of reason, be reproached with the
neurotic hyper-sensitiveness, the fickleness and the levity
that have earned for the latter-day French the epithet of
" en/ants terribles of Europe."

I do not propose to adduce evidence in proof of the
manliness displayed by the Japanese during the war and

n6 THE NEW FAR EAST.

war, be it remembered, is the touchstone of a nation's
virtues as well as of its defects nor do I intend to
expatiate on their marvellous prowess in battle. Those
who seek information on this subject will find a rich
fund of clearly arranged facts in Heroic Japan, by
F. Warrington Eastlake, Ph.D., and YAMADA Yoshi-aki,
LL.B., a most interesting collection of instances of Japanese
heroism, by land and sea, in the war with China,* every
case cited having been fully investigated by the painstaking
authors, even at the loss of much picturesque detail that
had accumulated round the facts, detail that had to be
stripped off in order to reduce to strict history what had
quickly become legendary. In that fascinating book,
whose only defect is a looseness in the use of naval and
military terms, due to a want of technical knowledge, are
to be found plain tales from the battlefields, and from the
sea, that warm the cockles of the heart and set the blood
tingling. These short narratives, most moving where the
authors have left them in the quaint, concise style of the
Orderly-room Report, or the Ship's Logbook, would require
the pen of Rud3^ard Kipling to do them full justice. As it
is, many of them are now embodied in the songs that are
sung by every man, woman and child in Japan. The record
of heroism includes not only " deeds of derring-do," accom-
plished against fearful odds, acts of the noblest self-
sacrifice, and instances of phenomenal endurance, but cases
of Spartan fortitude often on the part of the women, the
children, and the old folks left at home patriotic allo-
cutions full of inspired eloquence, and dying speeches that
ring out like the last notes of a bugle-call. All this was
only what people who really knew the Japanese spirit had
expected, for on one point observers had all along agreed :
that the Japanese are brave to a fault, fearless, dashing,
and skilful in the use of arms. What was not previously

*" Heroic Japan: A History of the War between China and Japan."
By F. Warrington Eastlake, Ph.D., and Yamada Yoshi-aki, LL.B,, etc.
With many Illustrations and Maps. London, 1897.

CARE FOR THE WOUNDED. 117

known was their possession of the ability to keep cool in
the stress of battle that is requisite for the execution of
Western tactics, for the effective handling of the scientific
implements of modern artillery, and especially for warfare
conducted with the latest types of warships and of
torpedcs.

The feature of the modern Japanese character, as
revealed in the war, to which I would call particular
attention is its humanity, shown by the generally admirable
conduct towards the vanquished (I have pointed to the
Port Arthur massacre as a sad exception) and by the
perfect arrangements for the care of the sick and wounded.
This humanity in war has not always distinguished the
Japanese. It is one of the best fruits of the new spirit
infused into the nation, at first only amongst the highly
educated, but gradually permeating all classes, ever since
the adaptation of Western civilisation commenced. In the
wild days of the strife between clans, the Japanese were
certainly not distinguished by any feelings of tenderness
for the vanquished, and it is no less certain that in our
days some of the older people wondered at the care that
was bestowed on the wounded Chinese, at the kind
treatment of the prisoners, and at the equitable adminis-
tration of the enemy's territory occupied by the troops.
To such old Tories, untouched by the modern spirit, all
this seemed mere foolishness. "The Chinese dare to
oppose our Emperor's august will ; they must be killed "
such was their reasoning. But the great majority of the
nation acquiesced in the humane tendencies of the Govern-
ment. This is amply proved by the readiness with
which the troops flushed with victory, and sorely tried
by terrible hardships under the blazing sun of the Korean
summer, or, later, amidst the Arctic frost and snow of
Manchuria and of Northern China obeyed the strict
orders of the Commander-in-Chief, enjoining them to
remember that they warred against the armies of China,
not against its unarmed inhabitants, whose lives and

ii8 THE NEW FAR EAST.

property must be respected. And except in the case
of Port Arthur these orders were carried out to the
letter.

In every district occupied by the Japanese, a civil
administration was established almost before the last shots
of the engagement had ceased to echo, and the Chinese
population found themselves, for the first time in their
lives, in the enjoyment of absolute security of person and
of property, and of equal justice for alh The Civil Com-
missioners in charge of the occupied districts were chosen
from the Japanese Consular Service in China, and were,
consequently, thoroughly acquainted with the character-
istics, the social and economic condition, and the language
of the people they were called upon to govern. They
held the scales of justice impartially, severely repressing
any pilfering, were it only of a fowl, or of a bag of
millet, on the part of the Japanese soldiers. (What would
our good friend Mr. Thomas Atkins say to this ? The ghosts
of many chickens surreptitiously purloined, not only from
the enemy, but as in South Africa from friendly roosts
as well, arise in judgment against him.) Looting was
strictly forbidden, and all supplies obtained, even in the
smallest quantity, had to be paid for at current rates.
The same rule applied to the requisitioning of carts and
of beasts of burden, and to all services rendered by the
inhabitants, who were not slow in taking advantage of
the opportunity of earning money. Bringing ample
supplies to the markets that were established, they
greatly facilitated the work of the admirable Japanese Com-
missariat the only commissariat except the German, and
the excellent supply arrangements of the Sirdar Kitchener's
Sudan Field Force that captured Omdurman which has
ever gone through a difficult campaign without provoking
curses, both loud and deep, from starving or ill -fed
soldiers. They worked, and worked well, as Transport
" Coolies," cheerfully carrying ammunition for the enemies
of their country. What did it matter ? The war was

WELCOME VICTORS. 119

the affair of the Mandarins, not theirs. The Japanese
treated them fairly and paid them honestly. " A-
Yaw ! " War was rather a good thing. Why, only
last week a regiment of Chinese "Braves" had passed
through the village about two hundred men with rifles
of a dozen different patterns, three or four hundred with
spears, and bows and arrows, and one company of a
hundred with German rifles, all alike, acting as the body-
guard of the Military Mandarin in command. They
stayed but one night near the village they seemed
anxious to lose no time on the march but they left the
place as bare as a Buddhist priest's shaven head ; they
killed the Ti-pao, the Village Constable, who had remon-
strated with them, plundered his house and bore away
his good-looking daughter. And when old YING Yu-lin,
the Village Elder, complained to the Military Mandarin
he got a hundred strokes with the thin bamboo for his
pains, "for causing unnecessary disturbance," the Mandarin
said,

Now a Japanese battalion was quartered in the village
it had followed close on the heels of the "Braves"
and it had brought a Civil Deputy-Commissioner with it,
who held a Court daily, at which any complaints were
promptly attended to and wrongs equitably redressed, and
marvellous to relate ! the only man who had been
even threatened with corporal punishment was WANG
Fung-sun, the village barber, who had, very naturally,
provided himself with a few strings of brass " Cash "
(silver was beyond his means) as a little douceur for
the magistrate, when he came to the Court to sue
Farmer Tso Ching-sing for payment of a debt. The
soldiers, too, were quiet, well-behaved men, and their
officers paid, cash down, for the supplies that were
being gradually produced from sundry hiding-places. The
able-bodied male inhabitants were all at remunerative
work, conveying stores to the next Japanese camping-
ground, under escort of a company, and the women were

120 THE NEW FAR EAST.

busy making thick wadded cotton mitts to protect the
soldiers' hands from frost-bite, the Japanese Commissariat
Officer supplying the pattern and paying a good price for
the work. Truly, this war was rather a good thing !
Small wonder, then, that all those in the village who
could write affixed their signatures to the petition old
Ying drew up on their behalf, and on that of the illiterate
majority, at the close of this beneficent war, praying
that " the Enemy " would be graciously pleased to remain,
and continue a rule so mild and so just that the like had
not been known in the land since the days of Yao and
of Shun.* " Vive notre ami I'ennemi ! " was the cry of
the Chinese civilians, and a more justifiable one in their
case than in that of those Parisians who greeted with it
the Cossacks of Suvaroff after the great Napoleon's down-
fall. The Japanese Civil Commissioners had at their dis-
posal a force of Imperial Gendarmerie, sent from Japan
to act as Military Police with the armies in the field.
These Kem-pei, as they are called, are a splendid body of
men, armed with rifle, sword, and revolver, and perfectly
drilled, doing constabulary duty on the high roads and
by-ways, on lonely moors and rugged mountain-paths,
throughout Japan, in the wilds of Formosa, and in the
Japanese Settlements in Korea. They are selected from
time-expired Non-Commissioned Officers and Privates of
exemplary conduct, and are absolutely trustworthy.

I know of at least one case in which the services of
the Kem-pei attached to a Civil Commissioner during the
war were called into requisition against their fellow-
countrymen. Some Chinese inhabitants of a captured town
Kin-chau, on the Liao-tung Peninsula had complained
to the Civil Commissioner that certain Japanese Trans-
port "Coolies," armed with dirks, had "purchased" from
them, for a few strings of "Cash," a number of valuable

"The Ideal (and probably mythical) Chinese Emperors. Yao is said
to have reigned in Shan-si (the cradle of the Chinese nation) from 2356
to 2255 B.C., Shun from that year until 2205 E.G.

RE LIE P TO THE VANQUISHED. 121

robes of silk and satin, the infinitesimal price paid having
been fixed by a very one-sided bargain, the " Coolies "
ominously fingering their weapons, the Chinese speechless
from fear. The Kem-pei were at once put on the track
of the " purchasers/' who were arrested in their camp the
same day, haled before the Commissioner, forced to restore
their "bargains" to the Chinese, and severely punished.
The benefactions of the Japanese were not confined to
the administration of such even-handed justice, to prompt
and fair payment for stores requisitioned and for services
rendered payment, be it noted, in coin, not, as in the
case of some European wars, in "Warrants" payable
(ultimately by the vanquished nation) at the restoration
of peace and to the carrying out of wise sanitary mea-
sures in the occupied districts. I have before me a
photograph, a perfectly trustworthy " snap-shot," repre-
senting a crowd of wretched-looking Chinese congregated
in front of the building in which the Japanese Civil Com-
missioner in charge of the town and district of Kin-chau,
already mentioned, had established his Court. The
Japanese Civil Flag, white with the red sun-disc, the
Hi-no maruj in the centre,* floats over the gateway,
guarded by two Kem-pei with fixed bayonets, and the
crowd are waiting patiently, as only Orientals can wait.
And what are they waiting for ? They are the blind,
the halt, the maimed, the lepers, and the aged paupers
of Kin-chau waiting for their daily rations, served out to
them from the Japanese Commissariat Stores by His
Imperial Japanese Majesty's Civil Commissioner, who
deems it right to feed the hungry and helpless, "enemies"
though they be. O ! You who harp upon that one
massacre at Port Arthur, think of the Japanese Com-

* This is the flag that every Japanese merchant vessel flies. It is also
the Diplomatic and Consular flag. On the Colours borne by the Army,
and on the Ensign of the Imperial Navy, the sun-disc has rays (also reel,
and broadening towards their ends) radiating from it to the edges of the
flas, a beautiful and distinctive one.

122 THE NEW T?AR EAST.

missioners feeding their poor "enemies" at Kin-chau,
and at many other places and acknowledge that there
must be some humane feeling deep down in the Japanese
heart !

It is easy to realise the consternation of the Chinese
population of the Liao-tung Peninsula when, after experi-
encing the blessings of the just and honest rule of their
conquerors, they were once more placed at the mercy of
grasping, corrupt Mandarins. I can hardly hope to enlist
much sympathy for these unfortunate people, who were
permitted to have just one tantalising taste of good
government and were then thrust back into the dark
realm of oppression whence they had emerged for such a
brief space. They are not picturesque, they do not send
appeals to our press, and above all no political party
in our midst has seen its way to utilising their woes as
material for an agitation, but their case is, none the less,
a hard one. Who deprived them of the new benefits
they were beginning to appreciate so highly, who handed
them back, bound hand and foot, to the corrupt
barbarism of China ? Three great Christian Powers :
Russia, France, and strange partner in this " Long Firm "
Germany.

I have used the term " Long Firm," and not without
reason, for the annals of our Criminal Courts do not
contain any more flagrant case of conspiracy to obtain
valuable property by false pretences. The very nature of
the arguments advanced by the three representatives of
Christendom in "advising" the victorious Japanese to
evacuate Port Arthur, and to retrocede the whole Liao-tung
Peninsula to China, savours of the "confidence trick."
The Russian Pecksniff, the German Chadband, and the
French Tartuffe were only " advising " their "dear Friend"
Japan for her own good ; she could not be allowed to
keep the territory she had won and paid for with the
blood of her bravest sons, it would "endanger the Peace
of the Far East," it would "perilously affect the Balance

A "LONG FIRM" TRANSACTION. 123

of Power in Eastern Asia," and here the cat jumped
out of the diplomatic bag, right under honest John
Bull's dull eyes "a Power holding Port Arthur would,
inevitably, overawe Peking, and have China at her
mercy."*

The three Powers were, of course, careful to point out
that their "friendly advice," given with their right hands
on their sword-hilts, was uttered in the sacred cause of
''Peace and Civilisation," a cause for which large tracts of
Asia have been, at various times, given over to fire and
sword. Japan, in presence of this significant admonition,
looked round for helpful friends and found none. Britain
gave her good advice, an inexpensive commodity, wisely
pointing out that Japan could not hope to resist, unaided,
what was, virtually, the peremptory command of the three
greatest military Powers. That was cold comfort, but it
was all Britain had to offer. At all events, it was some-
thing that she was not cajoled into joining the Allies in
their bullying policy, and Japan's gratitude for this small
mercy is profound. As to the United States, they had, at
that time, not yet discovered the importance of their
interests in the Far East, and the Monroe Doctrine was
still held to imply not only the non-interference of Europe
in the affairs of the New World, but America's abstention
from international politics in other continents. It had
not yet come to mean America for the North Americans
and anything else they can get for them too. Italy's
function as a factor in the Far Eastern Question had not
yet been discovered, nor Belgium's, as the scramble for
the Chinese spoils had not begun and the concession-hunter

* This last argument was advanced by Russia and her Allies early in
the spring of 1895, ve * on ^y three years later British politicians were
glibly explaining, in Mr. Toots's best vein, that the Russian occupation of
Port Arthur was " really of no consequence," and continued to babble of
"Open Doors," "Spheres of Influence," "the Yang-tsze Valley," and other
mere catch-words, their minds still impervious to the fact that, as long as
Ihere is a Chinese Empire, the Power that can overawe its capital holds
China in subjection to its will.

i2 4 THE NEW FAR EAST.

was biding his time. What was the conduct of the proud,
sensitive Japanese nation, elated by its triumphs in the
war, when suddenly ordered to give up the greatest prize
it had secured at such cost ? The statesmen who guided
its policy men of whom we had been repeatedly told
that they were superficially clever, but unequal to the task
of dealing with grave emergencies resolved to bow to the
inevitable. They made the people understand that there
was no possible disgrace in giving way to such over-
whelming forces, and the nation that had been so long
misrepresented to us as incapable of exercising political
common-sense, indeed as unable to grapple with any
serious problem that nation submitted with dignity to
what was, undoubtedly, an act of injustice and, in the
eyes of the Japanese, an almost irreparable blow to the
attainment of their cherished object the paramount posi-
tion in the Far East.*

So Japan yielded, and the Chinese inhabitants of the
Liao-tung Peninsula were handed over, in the name ot
Civilisation, to their former oppressors, who were not
likely to be inclined to any particular leniency towards
people who had fraternised with the enemy, and had
petitioned him to remain in the country for good. These
poor folk seemed destined to lead a sort of shuttlecock
existence, for they had scarcely time to settle down to
the old, miserable life once more, toiling desperately to
amass what they had to struggle quite as desperately to keep
safe from the claws of the Mandarins, when they were
turned over to new masters, and again in the name of
Civilisation. Germany, in order to suit certain exigencies
of home politics, claimed her share of the international
plunder rather prematurely, Russia had to follow suit, and
seized Port Arthur. The " Peace of the Far East " could

* It is interesting .to reflect on the probable behaviour of at least one of
the three Allied Powers in a surrender similar to the one Japan was
compelled to submit to. How the Boulevards would have rung with cries
of "Nous sommes truhis J"

" CIVILIZATION" GETS TO WORK! 125

be kept much more easily when a police force of twelve
thousand Russian soldiers were snugly ensconced in the
great stronghold. As to the "Balance of Power," that
was all right only a slight readjustment of the scales,
just the heavy swords of Russia and her Allies thrown
into the one from which the weight of British paramount
influence had been unceremoniously removed. And Japan ?
Japan was told to be good, and to run away and play
with her nice new toy, Formosa, or romp about all by
herself in Korea, and not to trouble herself with what
the " grown-ups " were doing and, if she were very good
well, she would see what she would see ! But Civilisa-
tion got to work without delay in the new Russian
"Sphere of Influence." She began, of course, by turning
the majority of the inhabitants out of Port Arthur Civilisa-
tion generally does begin by turning somebody out of
house and home she had a new three-tailed thong fitted
to her Plet, for she was a Russian Civilisation, and she
proceeded to "negociate" for the "purchase" of land
for the purposes of her railway. It is rumoured that some
of her bargains were rather of the nature of those con-
cluded by the Transport "Coolies" who "bought" the
gorgeous robes at Kin-chau, and the poor Chinese of
Liao-tung sighed for the Japanese Civil Commissioner.

If the civilians of the districts temporarily occupied by
Japan had cause to be grateful to their conquerors, the
Chinese who fell into their hands as prisoners of war,
wounded or unscathed, and those who remained in Japan
during the conflict, had still greater reason to be thankful.
The latter remained practically unmolested, in person and
property, throughout the war, amply shielded by the
orders of the Japanese Government enjoining that these
numerous settlers should be respected, orders that were
scrupulously obeyed by the great bulk of the population.
The Government of the United States had offered to act
as their protector during the war, but the Japanese
Government had protested that it was fully able to shield

126 THE NEW FAR EAST.

them from harm, and the result proved the truth of its
assertion. The German residents who had to fly from
France in 1870 were not so fortunate as the Chinese
settlers in the ports of Japan during the war against their
country, nor were the United States a perfectly safe
country for Spaniards to inhabit during the height of the
"spy fever" in the spring and summer of 1898.

The treatment by the Japanese of their un wounded
Chinese prisoners was exceedingly humane. When
the first batch of them reached Tokio, the Prefect of
Police of the Metropolis issued a proclamation reminding
the inhabitants, and especially the younger generation,
of the respect due to vanquished foes. Great crowds
assembled to see the prisoners pass, but not an unseemly
word was uttered. So comfortable were these Chinese
" Braves " during their captivity that many of them were
loth to return to China at the close of the war. In the
depositions made before Her Britannic Majesty's Consul
at Nagasaki, on 4th August, 1894, by Captain Galsworthy,
of the British steamship Kowshing (the transport, chartered
by the Chinese from the Indo-China Steam Navigation
Company, sunk, with over a thousand Chinese troops on
board, by the Japanese cruiser Naniwa, off Shopeiul Island,
in the Korean Archipelago, on 25th July, 1894), and by
his Chief-Officer, Mr. L. H. Tamplin, we have accurate
and absolutely unimpeachable testimony to the treatment
meted out to their prisoners by the Japanese. Both these
British sailors concur in expressing their thanks for " every
care and attention necessary for their comfort" received
during their detention by the Japanese naval authorities.
Lest it may be thought that they owed this considerate
treatment to their nationality, or to their undefined status
as " detained persons," not actually prisoners of war, I
transcribe the following " P.S., " appended by Chief-
Officer Tamplin to his account of the destruction of the
Kowshing and of his detention :

" I wish to add that the Chinese crew and officers of

A PRISONER'S PLEASANT LOT. 127

the Tsao-Kiang were being treated with every care during
our stay at Sasebo, and the Danish gentleman, Miihlen-
steth (sic), had the same attention that we had. The
Chinese and the Dane had all their personal property
with them."

The Tsao-Kiang was a Chinese despatch-boat, captured
on 25th July, 1894, by the cruiser Akitsushima. Her
officers and crew, about sixty in all, were sent to Sasebo,
the Imperial naval station in the Island of Kyu-shu, in
the transport Yayeyama, together with Captain Galsworthy,
Mr. Tamplin, Lucas Evangelista (a native of Manila, a
Quartermaster of the Kowshing, who had been wounded
in the neck by a bullet from the rifle of an infuriated
Chinese, was picked up by a boat from the Naniwa
and " immediately treated by the medical staff on board "),
and a Danish electrician, named Miihlenstedt, who had
been taken prisoner at the capture of the Tsao-Kiang. A
few entries, taken at random from Chief-Officer Tamplin's
diary, will show that "detention" in the custody of
Japanese naval officers was not a very hard lot. Mr.
Tamplin writes : " We were very well treated " (on board
the Naniwa, whose boats had saved him and his captain
from drowning, and from the bullets of the Chinese
soldiers, maddened by despair when they felt the Kow-
shing sinking under them), "dry clothes and food being
given to us, and even the sailors bringing presents of
sweet biscuits and things for us to eat. . . . The
officers and men of the Naniwa were continuous in their
efforts to give us all they could and to make things
pleasant for us as far as lay in their power. . . . Clothes
made on board were provided for us, and at noon" (on
the 26th July) " we were transferred to the Yayeyama,
the crew of the Naniwa waving us farewell. On getting
on board the Yayeyama, Captain Hirayama received us
very kindly and told us to make ourselves at home. . . .
We were berthed in the captain's own cabin, and the
officers joined in making us welcome, inviting us to the

128 THE NEW FAR EAST.

ward-room and offering us clothes and other necessaries,"
On arrival at Sasebo, on 2 8th July, "we were introduced
to Lieutenant C. Tamari, Admiral's A.D.C., and taken with
him in his steam-launch to the jetty. We were then
conducted to the hospital, where a room was prepared
for us on the ground floor. Lieutenant Tamari gave us
to understand that anything that we could ask for should
be supplied. . . . Tailor and bootmaker were in attend-
ance ; soap, towels, and all toilet requisites were sent.
Beer and claret, cigars, etc., and anything that we fancied
would be sent for from Nagasaki. . . . Numbers of officers
visited us and expressed their sympathy with us for the
loss of our comrades, and also for our unavoidable deten-
tion . . . 2pth July : Continued round of visitors, bringing
flowers, eggs, and offers of various things . . . 3oth July :
Passed in the same way, every attention being paid to
our comfort . . . 3rd August : Lieutenant Tamari called
with a letter from Rear-Admiral Y. Shibayama, giving us
our freedom, etc., to make arrangements for our departure.
We called, by invitation, on the Admiral in the afternoon,
and thanked him for the care and attention paid to us
by all. Many officers called in the evening to congratu-
late us. 4th August : The Government tender Sasebo-
Marn was placed at our disposal, and, with many fare-
wells, left with Lieutenant Tamari for Nagasaki, where we
arrived at 1.30 p.m., and were met by the Superintendent
of Water Police and the Superintendent of Police, tendering
their cards with offers of assistance."

Evidently, " detention " in the hands of the Japanese
naval authorities is not a bad way of spending a week or
so ! I have devoted so much space to this subject because
it is in connection with the sinking of the Kowshing that
a very grave charge of inhumanity was brought, at the
time, against Captain (now Rear-Admiral) Togo, of the
Naniwa, and his officers and crew. As the character of
the whole Japanese Navy is at stake under such an
accusation, the circumstances require investigation. It has

THE DEFENDERS OF WEI-HAI-WEL 129

been alleged that the Japanese, whilst doing their best to
rescue the Kowshing's European officers and Manila Tagal
Quartermasters, made absolutely no attempt to save any
of the drowning Chinese, who perished by hundreds. It
has been, further, maintained that the Japanese in the
Naniwa continued to rake the Kowshing's decks and to
pour a hail of bullets, from the machine-guns in their
tops and from small-arms, on to the sea around the
doomed ship whilst she was sinking. Under ordinary
conditions of naval warfare, such conduct would have been
barbarous, but in this case the Chinese themselves behaved
in a manner that rendered the usages of war, as recognised
amongst civilised nations, impossible of application. The
Chinese soldiers, more than a thousand in number, panic-
stricken and frantic, kept up a heavy rifle-fire from the
ports and the deck, aiming not only at the Naniwa' s boats,
but at the Kowshing's European officers and at their own
comrades who had jumped overboard, this insane firing
continuing until the ship disappeared beneath the waves.
By the rules of war, an enemy may lawfully be destroyed
if he persist in resistance, and the Naniwa was justified in
returning the fire as long as the Chinese continued to
shoot. Had they ceased firing and surrendered, their
lives would, undoubtedly, have been spared.

At the surrender of Wei-hai-wei, on i4th February,
1895, a large number of its gallant defenders, both naval
and military they deserved the epithet "gallant," for,
placed between the Japanese and the deep sea, they had
fought, for a time, like wild cats fell into the hands 01
the victors. By Article II. of the Capitulation, the officers
(213 Naval Officers and Cadets, and 40 Military Officers),
and the very mixed body of " Foreign Naval and Military
Advisers" in Chinese employ, were released on parole,
and, by Article III., the 2,871 Warrant Officers, Petty
Officers, Seamen, and Stokers, and the 2,000 rank and file
of the Army, were disarmed, and were marched, uncler
Japanese military escort, beyond the lines of the fortress,

130 THE NEW FAR EAST.

taking their personal property with them, and were
allowed to go free. This was a very wise course for the
Japanese to pursue ; the war being nearly at an end, it
would have caused unnecessary trouble and expense to
have taken the five thousand prisoners to Japan for the
short time remaining before the conclusion of the Treaty
of Peace, and the disbanded soldiers and sailors, dispersing
to their homes, spread tales of their sufferings during the
siege, and of Japanese prowess, that convinced the popula-
tion of the futility of further resistance. In the letter
intimating the surrender of the fleet and forts, addressed
to Admiral Ito, on i2th February, 1895, by Admiral Ting
the last letter written by that gallant man, who com-
mitted suicide in his cabin, the same day, by swallowing
a large dose of opium the Chinese commander made the
characteristic request that his men should be allowed a
couple of days' time, before the Japanese took possession,
"to exchange their uniforms for travelling garments." It
must not be imagined that the Chinese warriors wanted
to return to civil life clad in the local equivalent of
"tourist suits;" their chief anxiety was to don anything
that would conceal, until they reached their homes, the
fact of their having served in the w r ar. The Imperial
uniform does not at any time command respect nor gain
popularity for its wearers in China, and less than ever
during a disastrous campaign.

To prove that humanity towards their prisoners was
not confined to the officers and men of the Japanese Navy,
I will cite an instance of merciful conduct which does
honour to the kind heart of Field-Marshal Count Oyama,
the Commander-in-Chief of the Second Army Corps,
operating in the Liao-tung Peninsula.* On the evening

* The military title of the Commanders-in-Chief of the Japanese Army
Corps, and of the Chief of the General Staff at the Imperial Headquarters,
is usually translated by " Field-Marshal," but it really corresponds to the
British rank of " General," being the highest of the three classes into
which General Officers are divided in the Japanese as in Occidental

AN ACT OF CLEMENCY. 131

of the 27th November, 1894, six days after the capture
of Port Arthur, Marshal Oyama was inspecting the lines
in a heavy downpour that had soaked everything not
under cover. Passing by a dismantled house, he noticed
a group of Chinese prisoners standing, huddled together
in shivering misery, under the eaves, the rain dripping
from the roof on to their ill-clad bodies. Calling one of
his Aides-de-Camp, the Field-Marshal said: "Those, too,
are men. Their lives are more valuable than those of my
horses. Take these men quickly to my stables, turn my
horses out they must take their chance in the rain and
see that the prisoners are warmly sheltered." The good
Count's orders were immediately executed, much to the
delight of the Chinese, who, when it had been explained
to them to whom they were indebted, shed tears of
gratitude, and were profuse in their thanks. And this
humane action proceeded, be it remembered, from a
commander some of whose soldiers had been ripped open
as they lay wounded on the battlefield, stones and rubbish
being poured into their disembowelled bodies, perhaps by
the very men to whom he was extending his mercy ; at
all events, by Chinese soldiery.

With the one exception of the outburst of avenging
fury at Port Arthur, the Japanese, indeed, returned good
for evil, throughout the war, in the matter of the treatment
of the enemy's wounded. Their perfectly-equipped hos-
pitals were often crowded with wounded Chinese, who
received the same skilful attention, the same tender
nursing, as the Japanese. The Chinese hospitals were not
crowded with Japanese wounded, for the simple reason
that there were no Chinese hospitals. To the Chinese, a
wounded comrade appears merely an encumbrance, to be
stripped of his arms, accoutrements and uniform, and left
to die where he fell. "CHANG Ha-hsin is down. Who
shot him ? " one " Brave " would ask another. " The

armies. (General, commanding an Army Corps ; Lieutenant-General, com-
manding a Division, and Major-General, commanding a Brigade.)

132 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Wo-jen " (" the Dwarfs," the contemptuous term employed
by the Emperor of China in his proclamations during the
war when referring to the Japanese). " A-Yaw ! Very
well, then let the Wo-jen look after him ! " And look
after him they did, picking him up from the blood-stained
snow, bearing him carefully to their dressing-station, and
then to their clean, airy field-hospital, where calm, skilful
"Dwarf" surgeons operated, and then on to their great,
roomy, tidy base-hospital, where gentle "Dwarf" nurses
tended him with tiny, soft hands. Well might he think,
as many Chinese did, that the Japanese bullet had killed
him outright, for was this not Paradise ? Surely those
gentle women, with the low, sweet voices and the kind
eyes, must be the angels who sprinkle the lotus with
nectar in the Buddhist Heaven, tending the glorious buds,
in each of which a tiny Baby-Buddha nestles ? This must
be the commencement of a new, and happier, existence
plenty of food, nothing to do, clean clothes and a bright,
airy palace to live in 1 Thus the convalescent Chinese
pondered, and he was, as a rule, quickly convalescent, for
the wounds of all Far Eastern people heal with astonishing
rapidity, owing to their living chiefly on a vegetarian diet
or, at all events, eating but little meat and to their
drinking, as a rule, only a moderate quantity of intoxi-
cating liquor, and that not of a very injurious nature. It
is the unfortunate fact of his being, in so many cases, too
"beefy," and saturated with much poisonous alcoholic
drink of the worst quality often .with a poison still more
terrible permeating his system that makes the British
soldier die of wounds a Far Eastern would recover from
within a month.

If the wounded Chinese was not absolutely beyond
human help his cure was almost a matter of certainty,
for of all the marvels Japan exhibited to an astonished
world during the war the greatest was her Medical
Service, afloat and ashore. Surgeon-Major-General Taylor,
oi the Royal Medical Corps, was sent, when a Surgeon-

THE JAPANESE MEDICAL SERVICE. 133

Colonel, by the British Government to watch the working
of the Japanese Medical Service in the field, and was
attached to Headquarters at the seat of war. In a
lecture he delivered, soon after his return, before the
Military Society at Aldershot, he stated that "there was
only one word that would adequately describe the Medical
Services of the Japanese Navy and Army during the
war, and that word was perfection. Not a life was lost,"
he added, "on the Japanese side that the Medical Service
could have saved."

The admirable arrangements for keeping the troops at
the front in good health, and for saving their lives and
alleviating their sufferings when sick or wounded, were
due not only to the perfect organisation of the Army
Medical Service, adapted from the German model, and of
the Naval Medical Department, originally formed and
trained under British inspiration, but also to the well-
directed efforts of the Red Cross Society of Japan. This
noble organisation, with a membership of over two hundred
thousand, with branches in every part of the Empire,
and an annual income of more than, half a million Yen,
stands under the immediate and active patronage of the
Imperial Family, ever foremost in good works. During
the war it expended nearly four hundred thousand Yen on
its merciful work,* sending three hospital-parties, consisting
of surgeons, dressers, apothecaries, matrons, trained nurses,
accountants, clerks, porters, cooks, and even grim detail
" instrument sharpeners," to the seat of war, each party
being fully equipped with every requisite for the treat-
ment of two hundred patients. Voluntary contributions
poured into the Society's treasury, and enabled it to
establish auxiliary hospitals and sanatoria for the con-
valescent in Japan, thus affording valuable aid to the
hard-worked staff of the regular Naval and Military Sani-

* The exact amount was 386,971 Yen, 40 Sen. The Yen, or Japanese
silver dollar, is divided into 100 Sen, or cents, of 10 Rin each. The average
value of the silver Yen throughout 1898 was 2 shillings.

134 THE NEW FAR EAST,

tary Services. At these Red Cross Hospitals no fewer
than 1,484 Chinese wounded were treated and discharged as
cured. Besides the work appertaining more especially to
the sphere of action of a Society for the Relief of the Sick
and Wounded, the Red Cross Society (Seki-ju-ji-sha)
constituted itself the organiser of the feelings of enthusiastic
sympathy for those who were fighting for Japan that
animated the whole population. It gave every detach-
ment departing for the seat of war a warm " send off," and
took a great part in arranging the jubilant receptions that
awaited the warriors on their triumphal home-coming. More-
over, during the war, it undertook the free conveyance and
delivery of the fifty thousand packages of gifts sent to the
troops in the field, and of the six thousand seven hundred
similar parcels forwarded to the men serving afloat gifts
of every imaginable article likely to add to the comfort
of the gallant fellows, lovingly presented not only by
relatives but by the general public, the idea of these
" love-gifts," suggested by the Liebesgaben sent to the
German troops in 1870-71, having taken firm root amongst
all classes in Japan.

The Chinese, although completely ignorant of the Red
Cross and of its sacred mission China has not subscribed
to the Geneva Convention, to which Japan adhered in
1886, and her "Braves" look upon its badge merely as a
good mark to fire at, being distinctive and easy to hit
were not entirely without "love-gifts" of their own, if a
decree published in the Peking Gazette was ever carried
out. This Imperial Order was to the effect that Her
Majesty the Empress Dowager, having heard of the terrible
hardships undergone by the troops guarding the approaches
to the August Capital from the contemptible and impudent
"Dwarfs," whom they were about to chastise, felt moved
by deep compassion, and had ordered the disbursement of
a large sum from her Privy Purse for the purchase ol a
quantity of " yellow wine " (hoang-chiu} a liquor made
from the yellow, glutinous millet, and equal in alcoholic

S o
~ !>

.

a is

. a

THE RED CROSS MOVEMENT IN JAPAA. 135

strength to ordinary claret, and always drunk warm
wherewith the "Braves" shivering on the icy hills of
the North-East, and round the walls of Peking, might
warm their numbed bodies and cheer their hearts. To
anyone who is acquainted with Chinese official methods
it seems highly probable that the poor "Braves" never
drank that hoang-chiu, indeed, that they never even
" looked upon it " when it was yellow or any other
colour, but that somebody or other about the Palace had
an appreciable increase of income at about that time, a
benefit likely to have been enjoyed, in a minor degree,
by several colleagues and subordinates, the rewards of
enterprise being as much sub-divided amongst Peking
Mandarins as amongst London " promoters " and their
friends.

Some of Japan's Occidental detractors have alleged
that the wonderful success of the Red Cross movement
in Japan, the flow of contributions from rich and poor
often from the very poor the large, admirably-managed
Permanent Central Hospital of the Society at Shibuya, a
suburb of Tokio, the numerous Ambulance Classes for the
instruction of both sexes in "First Aid to the Injured,"
the devotion of the surgeons and nurses in the war, and
the zeal with which thousands of Japanese ladies, follow-
ing the example set by the Empress, made lint and
bandages (six thousand bandages were made by her
Imperial Majesty, the Princesses, and the Ladies of the
Palace, and sent to the seat of war, through the Society,
in October, 1894) that all this benevolent activity is
really foreign to the Japanese character, and partook, at
least during the conflict, of the nature of a fashionable
"craze," destined, besides, to look well in the eyes ol
Occidentals. How unjust such an accusation is can be
readily proved by pointing to the grand work done by
the Red Cross Society in time of peace, both before the
war in the relief, for instance, of the sufferers through
the eruption of the volcano Bandai San on I5th July,

136 THE NEW FAR EAST.

1888 (when 461 lives were lost, and twenty-seven square
miles devastated by boiling mud and ashes) and after. In
1891, the Society already had experience of relief work
on a large scale amongst the eighteen thousand and nine
hundred people who were more or less severely wounded
in the earthquake ot October 28th in the Provinces of
Mino and of Owari, when more than seven thousand
were killed outright. The populous towns of Gifu and
Ogaki were wrecked, and two smaller ones, Kasamatsu
and Takegahana, were completely destroyed, great fires,
originating, as is usually the case after an earthquake in
Japan, amongst the ruins of the houses, raging amidst the
heaps of wood and paper the chief building materials of
the country and devouring what the shock had levelled
with the ground. Altogether, nearly one hundred and
thirty thousand houses were destroyed ; great cast-iron
piers supporting railway bridges were snapped like carrots ;
rails were left suspended in mid- air through the subsidence
of embankments ; in other places the railway was trans-
formed into a " switchback " line ; in others, again, the
track was curiously bent into lateral serpentine undulations.
Mountains slipped and fell into valleys, damming up rivers,
and thus causing devastating floods, at a later period, to
complete the havoc made by earthquake and fire. Every
building left standing in the ravaged Provinces seemed
tottering to ruin, except the grand old Castle of Nagoya,
with the great dolphins of gold perched on either gable
of its five-storied keep.* The solid masonry of the old

* These beautiful finials of the highest roof in the Castle of Nagoya
are dolphins, nearly nine feet high, made of gold, in 1610, at the cost of
the famous general, KATO Kiyomasa, who built the tenshu, or keep. They
are valued, according to that excellent work Murray's Handbook for
Travellers in Japan, by Professor Basil Hall Chamberlain and W. B.
Mason, at 180,000 Yen. One of the pair has been a great traveller and
has experienced vicissitudes unusual in the quiet existence of a golden
dolphin. He had the honour of being sent by the Imperial Government
all the way to Vienna, to form the central attraction in the Japanese
Section of the International Exhibition of 1873, and the misfortune to
suffer shipwreck on the homeward voyage, when the Messageries Maritime*

THE EMPRESS AND HER HOSPITAL CORPS. 137

feudal castles, both at Nagoya (the fourth city of the
Empire) and at Ogaki (close to the centre of seismic
disturbance) showed hardly any traces of the earthquake.
Besides the castles, two things stood fast and firm in the
devastated region the wonderful, uncomplaining patience
of the sufferers, and the merciful help of the Red Cross
Society's Relief Corps. On receipt ot the news of the
disaster, the Empress immediately set the Society's organ-
isation in motion. In an incredibly short space of time
a completely-equipped Hospital Corps was sent to the
scene of the catastrophe. It treated 4,600 sufferers, who
had been injured seriously enough to necessitate their
entering the Field Hospitals, and of this large number
only eleven died of their wounds or burns. The Corps
also distributed relief to the starving people and ministered
to the immediate wants of the thousands or widows, of
orphans, and of forlorn old folks.

I have mentioned the services rendered during the war
in Korea, in Manchuria, in China, and in Formosa, by the
sixteen hundred devoted workers equipped by the Red
Cross Society, twenty-five ot whom succumbed to disease
and exposure in the Arctic cold of Manchuria and Northern
China, or the steamy heat of the fever-stricken Formosan
jungle. The Red Cross Formosan Hospital Corps, the last
in the field, had but recently returned from that island
when another, and a most urgent, call was made on
the Society's zeal. On the evening of the isth of
June, 1896, the greatest natural catastrophe of recent
times in the Far East overwhelmed the North-Eastem
coasts of Japan. The sea, impelled, probably, by a
seismic convulsion on the bed of the Northern Pacific,

steamship Nil foundered. He was saved, with great difficulty, after a
prolonged sojourn at the bottom of the China Sea, and reinstated in the
exalted position he has so well occupied for nearly three centuries. It is
rumoured that he occasionally irritates his companion across the roof
the other Kinno shachihoko by loudly whistling rattling marches and
dreamy waltzes learnt in the Kaiserstadt, or holding forth, at great length,
on the manifold charms of the lively V/iener Mddel.

138 THE NEW FAR EAST.

rose in a huge tidal wave, rushing inland, with awful
speed, engulfing whole districts. Nearly thirty thousand
lives were lost, and more than seven thousand people
were injured, whilst many thousands were rendered home-
less and deprived of all means of support. Here again
the Red Cross Society was the means of saving thousands
who would otherwise have perished miserably. Donations
for the noble work of rescue poured in from all sides, and
it does honour to the Japan Society that, immediately on
receipt of the news of the appalling disaster, it commenced
to raise a fund for the relief of the sufferers.* In the
space of less than three weeks, the Society collected
^"3,895, and remitted that amount, by telegraph, by instal-
ments (the first one, of a thousand pounds, on the morrow
of the opening of the fund) to Japan, through the inter-
mediary of the British Minister in Japan and the Japanese
Minister in London. This prompt action on the part of
Japan's friends in Great Britain, and the fact that the
amount of their donation was almost three times as large
as the total contributed from all the other countries of
Europe, were much appreciated by the Japanese, who
showed their gratitude in a very practical manner by
subscribing liberally, according to their means, to the
fund for the relief of the sufferers from the great famine
in India in 1897.

How honestly, how impartially and practically, the
funds for the relief of the sufferers from the tidal wave
were administered, may be gathered from the testimony
of many eye-witnesses, amongst others that of Monseigneur
Berlioz, the Roman Catholic Bishop in Northern Japan,
who wrote, at the time, to express his admiration of the
promptness, the energy and the fairness with which the
relief was distributed, and of the excellent, practical
measures taken by the Japanese authorities immediately

* A public meeting, convened, at the Society's request, by the Lord
Mayor of London, who presided, was held at the Mansion House, and
the fund to be raised was placed under the control of the Society's Council
as a Committee.

IN PEACE AND IN WAR. 139

after the cataclysm. I will cite two instances of the
spirit in which the relief was received by the sufferers.
In one village, near Kamaishi, money was given to the
few survivors of the Fishermen's Guild, to enable them
to purchase a boat, nets and tackle. A month later, they
returned about a third of the sum to the Relief Com-
missioner, stating that they had procured what they
required at smaller cost than they anticipated. At a
hamlet in the same district some miserably poor folk,
the survivors of an industrious population who earned a
precarious livelihood by cultivating small patches amongst
the rugged mountains near the sea, and by fishing, were
visited by the Relief Corps of the Red Cross Society. Of
one large family the sole survivor was found to be an
old woman ninety years of age ; of another, a baby two
months old. Houses and boats had all been swept away,
in a moment, with nine-tenths of the inhabitants. The
Relief Corps at once commenced a liberal distribution of
food, clothing, and money for the purchase of farming
implements, boats and nets. The Headman of the little
village, acting as spokesman for the rest, requested that
the relief tendered to them be reduced in quantity, "as
the people in the next village were in a worse plight, and
needed help more than they did." Honorary Secretaries
of Occidental relief funds, and Almoners of charities, please
note and compare !

I shall now relate a few instances of the behaviour of the
Japanese Medical Staff during the warfare at sea, because
a modern naval action, with its accumulation of horrors,
is calculated to test to the utmost the efficiency and the
devotion to duty of those whose work is carried on under
the greatest difficulties and earns the smallest meed of
glory. Moreover, the three episodes of the great sea-
fight off the Yalu that I have selected out of many throw
a vivid light on typical features of the Japanese character.
So I shall tell the plain, unvarnished tale of three MEN,
and how they bore themselves in the fierce battle.

! 4 6 THE NEW FAR EAST.

The first of the three is Inspector of Hospitals and
Fleets KAWAMURA Hoshu, M.D., the Principal Medical
Officer of Vice-Admiral Ito's squadron. When, at three
minutes past noon on the seventeenth of September, 1894,
the Japanese naval ensign was hoisted at the main on the
flagship Matsushima, as the signal to engage, every officer
and man stood at his post clad in the "rig of the day,"
not, however, as might have been expected, in the oldest
clothing compatible with the requirements of the Dress
Regulations, but in his "Number One" garments, hastily
donned in accordance with the knightly tradition of Old
Japan, that a warrior should face death in his best apparel.*
As the squadron steamed towards the enemy's centre,
reserving its fire, in spite of the provocative cannonade
directed against it, until well within three thousand yards'
range, Inspector Kawamura and his staff stood to their
quarters at the operating tables in the cockpit.

At 2.30 p.m., the Matsushima being hotly engaged with
Admiral Ting's flagship, the great battleship Ting-yuen
"made," and very well made, "in Germany," and ulti-
mately torpedoed by the Japanese at Wei-hai-wei
wounded men began to be carried below, and the Medical
Staff were soon busy. Whilst they were at their work, a
shell from one of the heavy guns of the ironclad Chen-
yuen that had come to the assistance of her sister-ship,
the Ting-yuen, now on fire, and stood by her bravely
entered the Matsushima at the bow, and burst, shattering
a gun and making havoc on the lower deck, involving in
the ruin the surgery where the doctors were operating.
The deck was burst open beneath their feet, and Dr.
Kawamura was thrown with tremendous force against
the deck above. Falling amongst the wreck of the surgery,
he lay stunned for a while. On regaining consciousness,
trembling violently from the shock, he crawled through

* In our own Royal Navy it used to be the custom for men ordered to
abandon a ship, sinking or on fire, to put on their "No. i rig," if time
permitted, so as to save their most valuable clothes.

A JAPANESE NAVAL SURGEON. 141

the debris and was picked up by a Bluejacket, who tried
to cany him to a comparatively safe place. The man
had not taken his burden many yards when the Inspector,
now fully conscious, asked him if he were " not a Seaman-
Gunner ? " On receiving an affirmative reply, he took
the astonished Bluejacket severely to task. " What are
you doing away from your station at the gun ? Put me
down instantly and go back to your post ! " he ordered
sternly. The man pleaded that he had no station to go
to, now that the gun he served had been destroyed by
the enemy's shell. "Then your place is at another gun,
to fill up some casualty," rejoined the imperturbable
Doctor, adding, with the politeness that never leaves a
Japanese, be he bleeding from a dozen wounds : " I thank
you for your well-meant exertions, but I order you, as
your officer, to put me down ! There are men properly
told off to bear the wounded the Bandsmen, for instance."
The Bluejacket urged that the gallant musicians had fallen
in as volunteer gunners, to replace men killed or wounded
(and right well they performed their unwonted duty).
"Never mind," said the Inspector, "there are the
Stewards and the Writers left to attend to the
wounded. No fighting man may do so unless specially
ordered."" Put me down ! " The man reluctantly obeyed,
and went off at the double to help at a gun. The
Doctor, sitting on the deck, tried to remove his shoes,
which were full of blood, his legs and feet being
severely wounded by the explosion. The pain caused
by the attempt made him lose consciousness a second
time. A Sick-Bay Attendant, who had escaped un-
injured, now came up, took off the Inspector's shoes
and socks, and bore him to the Captain's cabin, which

* In the Japanese Army, as well as in the Navy, the modern German
rule is strictly followed in this respect. It puts a stop to what has been
called "Victoria Cross hunting," and ensures the presence of every
combatant where he is most needed in the fighting line. " Been to take
a wounded comrade to the rear, sir! " is not accepted as an excuse for
absence from the front.

142 THE NEW FAR EAST.

had promptly been transformed into a surgery after the
wreck of the original cockpit. Regaining consciousness,
the Doctor called for a bucket of sea-water. A bucket
was let down over the side into the sea, lashed into
foam by the hail of shot and shell, and brought up.
Kawamura plunged his feet into it to stop the flow of
blood, bandaged them temporarily, and resumed his work
of directing the labours of the remaining surgeons and
their assistants. I think I am justified in asking the printer
to describe him as a MAN, in capital letters.

The next naval medical officer of whom I shall write
is my friend Surgeon Usui Hiroshi, of the Imperial
Japanese Navy, a member of the Japan Society of London,
who was, when an Assistant-Surgeon, the medical officer
in charge on board the Akagi, a gunboat of 615 tons,
with a speed of only twelve knots the smallest and
slowest of Admiral Ito's ships an armament of one
24-centimetre Krupp gun, one 12 -centimetre gun, also
from the great works at Essen, and two machine-guns,
and a complement of one hundred and twenty-six officers
and men heroes every one of them.

The naval annals of Britain are full of instances ot
desperate gallantly against fearful odds, but none more
worthy of admiration than the running fight kept up,
against overwhelming superiority of numbers, of speed,
and of armament, by this plucky little gunboat of Japan's
young navy, on the memorable day off the mouth ot
the Yalu. The Akagi, owing to her slowness, greatly
hampered the movements of Vice-Admiral Ito's squadron,
and although every effort was made to afford her and
the other slow ships, the Hiyei and Fuso, and the armed
ex-merchantman, Saikyo-Maru, all possible protection she
had repeatedly to face the fire of several ot the large
Chinese vessels, who singled her out as a presumably easy
prey. They had reckoned without their host, for the
brave man who commanded her Commander SAKAMOTO
Hachiroda knew but one way of defence : the best way,

THE STORY OF THE AKAGI." 143

that consists in taking the offensive, and, when they
bore down upon him, he blazed away furiously at the
great Chinese battleships and cruisers, directing his fire, of
course, only to the parts where they were vulnerable.
This gallant officer, who honoured me with his friendship,
was not only brave and skilful, he had great technical
knowledge of his profession, gained, partly, during the
years he had spent in the Russian Navy and, after-
wards, as Naval Attache to the Japanese Legation at
St. Petersburg. He was an excellent Russian scholar, and
I well remember how, whilst sharing his countrymen's
not unnatural distrust of Russia's intentions in the Far
East, he used to speak with affectionate and grateful
admiration of his old shipmates in the Tsar's Navy, and
of the charming people who had captivated him, as they
do all strangers who sojourn on the banks of the Neva.
Alas ! This brilliant officer, who seemed destined to
render such great services to Japan, was not to see the
close of the battle in which the service he adorned won
undying fame.. Early in the action, he had swept the
bridge of the Chinese ironclad Lai-yuen with his starboard
guns, killing or wounding all those upon it, and held his
own against the furious onslaught of the enemy's left
wing, delivered at 800 yards. The hail of Chinese shot
and shell was, fortunately, badly directed, or the Akagi
must have been destroyed at this stage, but presently the
enemy got the range, and one of his shells burst just over
her, killing Midshipman HASHIGUCHI Kojiro and wound-
ing Lieutenant SASAKI Kosho, who was immediately
attended to by the Surgeon, Dr. Usui.

The next missile that burst on the Akagi, at 1.20, p.m.,
did dire execution. It killed brave Commander Sakamoto
at his post and two Seamen-Gunners at one of the machine
guns, whilst two others were borne below to the Surgeon,
who from this moment was uninterruptedly at work, aided
only by one Hospital Attendant, for the rest of the
engagement, The death of the Commander supplied a

144 THE NEW FAR EAST.

crucial test of the quality that weighs more in the scale
of victory than heavy armour or great guns coolness
under fire. Without a moment's hesitation, Lieutenant
SATO Tetsutaro, the Navigating Officer, took the Com-
mander's place on the bridge, and assumed the command
which devolved upon him as the senior surviving officer.
As he was calmly directing the little ship's stout fight,
a shell, bursting in the engine-room, killed four stokers,
wounded a fifth, and cut through a steam-pipe, whilst
another shell, almost simultaneously, struck the upper
deck, exploded, and killed three Seamen-Gunners.

The Akagi's plight was now a desperate one. Clouds
of scalding steam from the broken pipe filled the engine-
room, and the supply of ammunition to the fore part of
the ship was cut off. The Assistant Engineer, ISOB
Ichijiro, rushed back into the hissing steam, followed by
Petty Officer IWANO Namisuke. Together, they managed
to open a port, which allowed egress to some of the
scalding vapour, and the Engineer, putting a blanket
over his head, approached the broken pipe and succeeded
in fastening the blanket over the fracture, thus enabling
Chief Engineer Hirabe and his staff to execute temporary
repairs so satisfactorily that the vessel's speed was not
lowered to any appreciable extent. Shot after shot was,
meanwhile, telling on her decks. The wounded had to
be removed to the ward-room, and when that became
unsafe splinters flying through it and killing a man as he
lay waiting for his turn to have his wounds dressed the
captain's cabin was transformed into a surgery, the dining-
table being used as an operating-table. Presently, the
Hospital Attendant was wounded, and Dr. Usui had to
perform all the operations thereafter without the use ol
aneesthetics, having no trained man to administer them
whilst he plied the knife or the probe. Not a sound
escaped the lips of any of his patients, save one, mortally
wounded, who gasped : " Has the Ting-yuen been sunk
yet ? " He was told that the Chinese flagship was badly

THE STORY OF THE "AKAGI." 145

damaged and on fire. " We have her at last ! " he cried
and died with a look of exultation.

I have seen a water-colour drawing, by an officer who
was present, representing the upper deck of the gunboat
at this stage of the fight shambles is the only word to
describe that deck, strewn with bodies and reeking with
blood. Changing her course repeatedly, the plucky ship
fought on valiantly. A shell carried away her mast, from
which the ensign and signals were flying. Instantly, three
Petty Officers, IWANO Namisuke", the same who had rushed
with the Engineer through the escaping steam, UYEDA
Jutaro, and IKEMOTO Nobuchika, rigged up, on the
remaining stump, the mast of one of the ship's boats as a
jury-mast, from which the flags soon fluttered once more.
At 2.15, a shell again struck the bridge, wounding Lieu-
tenant Sato. Handing over the command of the ship to
Lieutenant MATSUOKA Shuzo, the only remaining com-
batant officer able to stand, he went below to have his
wound hastily dressed by the Surgeon. As soon as this
was done, he returned to the bridge and resumed command
of the ship. Had Lieutenant Matsuoka been killed, or
disabled, during his brief command, and had Sat5's injury
been so serious as to incapacitate him from returning to
duty, the command of the ship would have devolved,
according to the hierarchy of the Japanese Navy, upon
the only available commissioned officer Assistant-Surgeon
Usui the Engineer Officers could not be spared from the
engine-room the world would have been treated to the
novel spectacle of a doctor fighting a ship, and, from what
I know of Dr. Usui, I feel sure he would have quitted
himself as manfully on the bridge as he did in the cockpit.

By this time, the number of men fit for duty had been
terribly reduced. One of the machine-guns was served
by the Signalman, and, during Lieutenant Sato's absence
in the surgery and Lieutenant Matsuoka's command in his
stead, the duties of Gunnery Officer, or Officer of Quarters,
were ably performed by a Leading Seaman-Gunner. At
K

146 THE NEVS FAR EAST.

2.20, the Akagi's most obstinate adversary, the ironclad
Lai-yuen, closed to 300 yards. With a desperate effort,
the crew of the gunboat's stern-gun poured a rapid fire
on the Lai-yuen, and succeeded, with a well-aimed shell
that struck her deck aft, in setting the great Chinese
warship a-blaze. The other Chinese ships went to their
consort's assistance, and the gallant little Akagi, justly
proud of her share in the day's great deeds, drew off to
safe quarters to complete the repairs to her steam-pipe,
and to give the crew a well-earned rest, and rejoined the
flagship at the close of the engagement. Assistant-Surgeon
Usui was the only man on board for whom there was no
rest on that day, nor for many days to come. The Akagi
had lost two officers and nine men killed, and had two
officers and twelve men wounded, most of them severely ;
a total of twenty-five casualties out of a complement of
one hundred and twenty-six. The Doctor was promoted
to Surgeon, received the decoration "For Valour,"* and
was asked what special favour he would desire from the
Imperial Government. His answer was : " To be sent to
London, for a couple of years' study at St. Thomas's
Hospital." His desire was fulfilled. Another MAN, I
trow !

One more true tale of the great sea-fight, and I shall
have done with scenes of bloodshed. In the thick of the
fight, the Hiyei was penetrated by a Chinese shell, which
exploded in the ward-room, transfonned into a hospital,
where the medical staff, assisted by the Paymaster and
his Clerks, were ministering to the numerous wounded.
Staff-Surgeon Miyake (the ship's principal medical officer),
Paymaster Ishizaka, and several of the wounded lying in
the ward-room were killed, and the whole medical staff
killed or wounded. The place was filled with the burning,
acrid fumes of the high explosive ; heartrending groans
arose from the confused mass of wreckage. Suddenly, a

* The Japanese equivalent of the Victoria Cross the Kin-shi, or " Golden
Hawk."

A PETTY OFFICER'S DEVOTION. 147

figure started up from a dark corner and staggered to its
feet. Could that be a man ? The face was mangled and
distorted beyond recognition, the hair and eyebrows burnt
off, but the husky voice was still audible that addressed
the men who had rushed down from the upper deck
to render assistance. And the voice said : " I am First-
Class Hospital Attendant MIYASHITA Sukejiro, and sorely
wounded. My poor body is now useless, but my mind
is still clear. I can tell you, who are unskilled in surgery,
what to do, and how to dress the wounds of these others.
The antiseptics are over there, in that locker. There is
not much of them left, even if the explosion has not
destroyed them. Please use them sparingly." And,
scarcely able to stand, he began to direct them how
to attend to the horribly mangled men who lay on the
deck all round. Lieutenant-Commander SAKAMOTO Toshi-
atsu, filled with admiration at the Petty Officer's devotion,
addressed him thus : " Your words and bearing prove you
to be a truly gallant man, and a loyal subject of our
Emperor. Should this day be your last, I shall see to it
that your noble devotion be known all over Japan."
Miyashita, almost blinded by the explosion, replied, at-
tempting to salute : " Are you Commander Sakamoto ?
You see how that shell has served me. Well, I am quite
willing to die, if die I must ; but what vexes me is that
my hands and feet are now useless, so that I cannot do
my duty whilst there is life in me." With clenched teeth
and panting breath, suffering tortures, he still tried to find
instruments, bandages and drugs for the improvised hospital
ward to which the survivors were being removed, but the
Lieutenant-Commander ordered him to consider himself off
duty, and insisted on his lying down. He was landed at
Sasebo several days after, with the other wounded who
could be moved, and it is pleasing to know that, he
recovered at the Naval Hospital there so completely that
he was able to return to duty. Truly, again, a MAN !
I have related the tale of the steadfastness of three

148 THE NEW FAR EAST,

Japanese men ; it is only right that I should state that
the records of the war-time teem with instances of heroism
on the part of Japanese women. Their brave hearts and
staunch patriotism did not lead them to deeds of valour
in actual righting although many volunteered for the
army and were sorely grieved at their services being
refused but to serve their beloved country in the many
ways open to their sex. Of their services as nurses in
the field, and in hospitals at home, I have already
spoken, also of their activity in making bandages, and
charpie, but these occupations were, of course, only
possible for a minority of the women of Japan. One
way of serving the national cause was within the reach
of all of them, and all, without exception, adopted it
they encouraged their relatives leaving for the front, many
worked hard and uncomplainingly to keep the little home
together whilst the husband was away fighting; they sent
comforts of all kinds, lovingly prepared, to the warriors in
the field or at sea, and if the dread news came that a
loved one would never return, they bore their sorrow
with noble resignation. There were many like that grand
old dame, whose husband and eldest son were killed in
action, whilst her only other son died of sickness in a
field-hospital, and who, when the first two bereavements
were announced to her, shed not a tear. But when the
news of her second son's death was broken to her, as gently
as might be, by an officer home from the seat of war,
she wept, because, she said, she had no other sons to
send out to die for the Emperor and for Japan.

In all the good works done by the women of Japan
during those months of national stress their natural leader,
the Empress, gave a noble example. It was this gracious
lady, as kind-hearted and gentle as she is graceful and
accomplished, who took the lead in every movement for
the mitigation of the horrors of war. She it was who
gladdened the wounded and the sick by her periodical
visits to the hospitals, where not only her own country-

A REMARKABLE LETTER. 149

men but enemies, too, were being tenderly nursed, and
it was her womanly heart that prompted the humane
action of the Japanese authorities, who, when articu-
lated artificial limbs, made, and beautifully made, in Japan,
were given to those of the Emperor's soldiers and sailors
who had been maimed in the war, included in the
distribution those Chinese prisoners who had undergone
amputation in Japanese hospitals. If that be not practical
Christianity, it seems to me a very good working imitation.

Finally, to give an insight into the feelings of chivalry
that can move the Japanese even in these prosaic days,
and at a time when they might well have been exasperated
by the unexpectedly protracted resistance of their foes, I
shall give some account of Vice-Admiral Ito's relations
with Vice-Admiral Ting, and of his conduct on being
informed of his gallant adversary's death.

The relations between the opponent leaders will be
best understood, and the character of the great Japanese
Admiral most clearly revealed, by the perusal of the letter
he sent to Admiral Ting on the 25th of January, 1895,
five days before the commencement of the actual attack on
Wei-hai-wei. This document is of such importance as to
warrant its reproduction unabridged. These are the words
of ITO Sukehiro, Vice-Admiral, and Commander-in-Chief of
the Imperial Japanese squadron off Wei-hai-wei :

" I have the honour to address this letter to your Excellency.
The vicissitudes of the times have made us enemies. It is a mis-
fortune. Yet it is our countries that are at war. There need be
no hostility between individuals. The friendship that formerly
existed between you and me is as warm as ever to-day. Let it not
be supposed that in writing this letter I am actuated by any idle
purpose of urging you to surrender. The actors in great affairs often
err; the onlookers see the truth. Instead of calmly deliberating
what course of procedure on his own part is best for his country,
best for himself, a man sometimes allows himself to be swayed by
the task in which he is actually engaged, and takes a mistaken view;
is it not then the duty of his friends to advise him and to turn his
thoughts into the right channel ? I address myself to you from
motives of genuine friendship, and I pray you to appreciate them.

150 THE NEW FAR EAST.

What is the origin of the repeated disasters that have befallen the
Chinese arms ? There is, I think, little difficulty in discovering the
true reason if one look for it calmly and intelligently. Your discern-
ment has, doubtless, shown you the cause. It is not the fault of one
man that has brought China into the position she now occupies;
the blame rests with the errors of the Government that has long
administered her affairs. She selects her servants by competitive
examination, and literary attainments are the test. Thus it results
that her officials, the repositories of administrative power, are all
literates, and that literature is honoured above everything. Her
practice in this respect is as uniform to-day as it was a thousand
years ago. It is not necessarily a defective system, nor does it
necessarily produce a bad Government. But a country can never
preserve its independence in practice by such means. For you know
well what troubles Japan had to encounter thirty years ago, what
perils she had to surmount. She owes her preservation and her
integrity to-day wholly to the fact that she then broke away from
the old and attached herself to the new. In the case of your country
also, that must be the cardinal course at present ; if ypu adopt it, I
venture to say that you are safe ; if you reject it, you cannot escape
destruction.

" In a contest with Japan, it has long been fated that you should
witness results such as are now before you. Can it be the duty of
faithful subjects of the Empire, men really solicitous for its welfare,
to swim idly with the tide now sweeping over the country by the
decree of an ancient fate, making no effort to stem it ? A country
with a history running back thousands of years, and territories
stretching tens of thousands of miles, the oldest Empire in the
world, can it be an easy task to accomplish for such a country a
work of restoration, placing its foundation on a permanently solid
basis ? A single pillar cannot prevent the fall of a great edifice.
Is there any latitude for choice between the impossible and the
disadvantageous ? To hand over squadrons to the foe, to surrender
a whole army to an enemy, these are mere bagatelles compared
with the fate of a nation. By whatever reputation a Japanese
warrior may possess in the eyes ot the world, I vow that I believe
your wisest course is to come to Japan and wait there until the
fortunes of your country are again in the ascendant, and until the
time arrives when your services will be again needed. Hear these
words of your true friend. Need I remind you that the annals of
history contain many names of men who have removed a stain from
their names and lived to perform great deeds? MacMahon, of
France, having surrendered and passed over into the enemy's
country, came back after a time and assisted in reforming the
French administration, the French not only forgetting his disgrace
but even elevating him to the post of President. Similarly, Osman

FROM VICTOR TO VANQUISHED. 151

Pasha, after losing the fortifications at Plevna, and being himself
captured, came home to Turkey, where he rose to be Minister of
War, and acquired a high reputation in connection with his mili-
tary reforms. If you come to Japan, I can assure of the good treat-
ment you will receive, and of the Emperor's favour. Not only has
His Majesty pardoned subjects of his own who had raised the
standard of rebellion, but he has rewarded their talents by elevating
them to positions of high trust, as in the case of Admiral Enomoto,
now a member of the Cabinet, and of OTORI Keisuke, a Councillor
of State. There are many such instances. In the case of men of
note who are not His Majesty's subjects, his magnanimous treat-
ment of them would certainly be even more marked. The great
question that you have now to determine is whether you will throw
in your lot with a country that you see falling to ruin, and be
involved in a result inevitable under unchanged administrative cir-
cumstances, or whether you will preserve the strength that remains
to you and evolve another plan hereafter. It has generally been
the habit of warriors of your country to use haughty and rough
language in addressing their foes, but I address this letter to you
from motives of pure friendship, and I entreat you to credit my
sincerity. If happily, reading these word's, you accept my counsel,
I shall, with your permission, address some further remarks to you
on the subject of giving practical effect to the idea.

(Signed) " Iro Suk6hiro,

" Vice-Admiral, Commancler-in-Chief of His Imperial
" Japanese Majesty's Squadron."

It has been hinted by some that the phraseology of
this remarkable document is not the gallant Admiral's
own ; indeed, some think they can recognise the style of
a clever civil official who was attached to the Head-
quarters of the Second Army Corps. But whether Admiral
I to be responsible for the style, or only for the ideas so
forcibly expressed, the letter was signed by him, and its
contents are known to represent his views. There is a
savour of heroic days in this appeal addressed, on the eve
of a desperate struggle, by Japan's foremost naval com-
mander, but recently the victor in the greatest sea-fight
of our time, to his erstwhile friend and present adversary,
the vanquished in that battle Admiral TING Ju-chang, a
sailor almost as able as himself, and equally brave. Had
China possessed a dozen leaders of his stamp, men imbued

i$t THE NEW PAR EA&T.

with the courage and the high sense of duty displayed by
Ting, by one or two of his officers, and by General Tso
Pao-kwei,* the war would have been protracted, and her
defeat inevitable in the face of Japan's superior organisa-
tion would, at least, have been an honourable one. But
the handful of capable, brave men on the Chinese side
not all of them Celestials, as the doughty Major Con-
stantine von Hanneken's name shows were powerless in
the midst of the general corruption and dense ignorance
of those above, around, and subordinate to them. They
were bound, besides, with endless coils of yellow tape,
still more constricting and paralysing than our own, red
variety. At every turn they were hampered by the civil
authorities in a manner only worse in degree than the
conduct of the criminal idiots for whom victories were
won, in spite of them, by Nelson, whose great heart they
nearly broke, almost driving him out of the service. A
narrative of Admiral Ting's constant struggle against official
stupidity, malignity, and corruption on shore, would read
like an account of Nelson's perpetual conflict with those
British Mandarins who pared down his requisitions, ignored
his proposals, and often thwarted his plans. That Admiral
Ting achieved as much as he did little as it practically
amounted to in opposing Japan's victorious forces for

* General Tso Pao-kwei was killed in the great battle at Phyong-yang,
or Ping-yang, in Korea, on i5th September, 1894. He commanded the
Feng Brigade. Wounded early hi the fight, he tore up his clothes to
bind up his wound, and continued directing his troops, nor did a second
wound dismay him. A third bullet killed the brave general, whose death
threw his brigade into confusion, and thus facilitated the capture by the
Japanese of the "Peony Hill" (Mok-tan-San), a commanding position, and
the scene of the defeat of the Japanese by the Chinese and Koreans in
1592. The interval of three hundred and two years had not effaced from
Japanese minds the humiliation of that defeat, suffered by their famous
Christian General, KONISHI Yukinaga, many of whose warriors were also
Christians, converts of the Portuguese missionaries. Every Japanese soldier
storming the fortified "Peony Hill" felt that he was avenging the defeat
of three centuries ago. Centuries appear mere years in the long annals
of the Far East, reaching back into the mythical period; the Japanese
take a keen interest in the past history of their nation, and they
" remembered Peony Hill."

ADMIRAL TING. 153

nearly a fortnight before his inevitable surrender, is matter for
wonder when the obstacles he had to face are considered.
His whole career gave proof of the man's indomitable
energy and ability. Acquiring his naval training late in
life he was originally a cavalry officer he made himself
so proficient that Captain Lang, R.N., the British Naval
Adviser whom the jealousy and bad faith of arrogant
Mandarins had driven to resign his position in disgust,
stated, at the beginning of the war, his confidence in the
Chinese Admiral's capacity was so profound that "he
would be ready to follow him anywhere." But the atmo-
sphere of corruption and arrogant imbecility in which
Ting had to work would have overcome a greater man.
Thwarted by the civil authorities, who are supreme in
China, even in naval and military matters a situation
not without analogies in the history of some Occidental
countries feebly supported by some of his own captains,
actually deserted by others, and without any intelligent
co-operation from the land forces, he undertook the hope-
less task of defending Wei-hai-wei, one of the "Gate-
posts of Peking " the other one, Port Arthur, was already
in the hands of the Japanese. From the outset, he
encountered ill-will and ignorant obstinacy on the part
of the military commanders holding the great fortifications
that German scientific skill had created and armed, at
Wei-hai-wei as at Port Arthur, at the cost of a huge
expenditure of Chinese money. The General commanding
the troops refused his offer to land Seamen-Gunners from
the four thousand good sailors who still manned his fleet,
the remnant that had escaped from the defeat off the
Yalu, and some vessels that had not yet been engaged.
Ting proposed that these well-trained gunners should serve
the great guns mounted in .the shore-batteries and forts.
Had his proposal been accepted, the Japanese troops
would not have captured the works on the eastern side
of the harbour without great loss, and, more important
still, when the forts had ultimately to" be abandoned

154 THE NEW FAR EAST.

before the irresistible rush of the Japanese storming
parties, the sailors would certainly have destroyed the
guns, or rendered them useless. The Chinese military
artillerists neglected this precaution in the hurry of their
evacuation their chief thought, at that moment, was to
put as much ground as possible between themselves and
the Japanese, who placed the uninjured cannon and their
ammunition in charge of the Naval Brigade attached to
the attacking columns. The smart Seamen-Gunners soon
turned the captured ordnance on the Chinese fleet, drove
it into the western part of the harbour, and kept it there,
nestling close to the protecting guns of the great fort on
Liu-kung Island, throughout the siege. Admiral Ting
prevented a repetition of this in the case of the Western
Forts, when he saw they were doomed to be captured,
and apprehended the peril his fleet, and the sheltering
island-fortress, would be in were the guns on these
works to be turned against him at the comparatively
short range their position would ensure. Knowing how
useless it was to place any reliance in the soldiers
garrisoning the forts, he landed, on the ist of Feb-
ruary, with a body of volunteers from his fleet and
destroyed the guns, to the intense disappointment of
the Japanese, who entered the forts on the next day,
the "Braves" having fled to Chifu. I mention these
incidents of the memorable siege because they indicate
the absolute necessity for strong fortifications, heavily
armed and properly manned, on the land-side of Britain's
new naval base, if a fleet is to ride safely at anchor in
the harbour.

On the 25th of January, 1895, the captain of a British
man-of-war delivered to Admiral Ting the letter in which
his old friend, now his adversary, urged him to surrender.
To this communication he made no reply until the i2th
of February. Then, but not till then, the stout heart,
weary and sore with disappointment and disgust, gave way
to the pleading of the frenzied inhabitants of Liu-kung

ADMIRAL TING'S REPLY. 155

Island, and Ting his best ships, including his flagship, the
great ironclad Ting-yuen, destroyed by the enemy's tor-
pedos or shells, his torpedo flotilla captured whilst attempt-
ing to escape, the forts all save Liu-kung in ruins, or
in the hands of the Japanese, and his decimated men,
running short of ammunition, worn out by a succession
of terrible nights spent in efforts to repel the magnificently
daring attacks of the Japanese torpedo-boats saw no alter-
native to surrender. A telegram from Li Hung-chang had
informed him, on the night of the nth, that no help
could be offered him, so, on the morning of the I2th of
February, he sent Captain Chang, of the Kuang-ping, in
the Chen-pei flying a flag of truce, to Admiral Ito, with
the following letter :

11 1 received the letter of suggestions addressed to me, by the

Officer in Command of " (here follow characters which

may mean " Sasebo," the Japanese naval station in Kyu-shu,
and would, in that case, be an error, or they may be an
attempt to reproduce phonetically always a difficult task with
Chinese ideograms the name of the British warship that brought
Ito's letter, probably H.M.S. Severn) "but did not reply because
our countries were at war. Now, however, having fought resolutely,
having had my ships sunk and my men decimated, I am minded to
give up the contest, and to ask for a cessation of hostilities, in order
to save the lives of my people. I will surrender to Japan the ships
of war now in Wei-hai-wei harbour, together with the Liu-kung
Island forts and the armament, provided that my request be com-
plied with, namely, that the lives of all persons connected with the
navy and army, both Chinese and foreigners, be spared, and that
they be allowed to return to their homes. If this be acceded
to, the Commander-in-Chief of the British Squadron will become
guarantor.* I submit this proposal, and shall be glad to have a
speedy reply.

(Signed) "TiNG Ju-chang,

Ti-tuh (Vice- Admiral) of the Pei-yang (Northern Squadron).
" Eighteenth Day of the First Month of the Twenty-second

"Year of Kwang-hsu " (i2th February, 1895). f
"To His Excellency Ito,

" Commander-in-Chief of the Japanese Squadron."

* /.<?. The British Admiral would see that the terms of the Capitulation
were strictly fulfilled.

t- The Period of the Reign of the present Emperor of China, who

156 THE NEW FAR EAST.

To this letter the Japanese commander immediately
replied, as follows :

" I have received your letter and noted its contents. I am pre-
pared to take over to-morrow the ships, forts, and all the other
material of war in your possession. With regard to the hour and
other particulars, I shall be glad to consult with you when I receive
a definite reply to this communication. When the transfer of every-
thing has been concluded, I shall detail one of our warships to
escort all the persons indicated in your despatch to a place con-
venient to both parties, but I desire to offer an expression of
opinion on one point. As I had the honour to advise in my
recent communication " (his letter, delivered on 25th January,
urging a surrender), " I venture to think that, for the sake of your
own security and in the future interests of your country, it would
be best that you should come to Japan and remain there until
this war is over. If you decide to adopt that course I offer you
the strongest assurance that you shall be treated with every con-
sideration and shall receive the fullest protection. But, if you prefer
to return to your own country, your wishes shall be respected. With
reference to the suggestion that the British Naval Commander-in-
Chief should act as guarantor of this arrangement, I think such a
precaution wholly unnecessary. I place implicit reliance on your
assurances as an officer. I trust that I shall receive a reply to this
letter by ten o'clock to-morrow morning.

(Signed) "Ixo Sukehiro,

"Commander-in-Chief of the Squadron; on board
" H.I. J. M.S. Matsushima,

" iath February, 1895.
" To His Excellency TING Ju-chang,

" Commander-in-Chief of the Pei-yang Squadron."

succeeded to the throne in 1875, at xhe age of four. The name means :
" Brilliant Succession." In the chronology of the Far Eastern nations,
" Reign-Periods " answer the purpose of the Christian Era with us, or
the Hejra of the Moslem world. In order to fix a date, it is, therefore,
necessary to know when each Period commenced, no easy matter in Japan,
where they did not always coincide with the actual Reigns, being some-
times changed to celebrate an auspicious event. A simplification was
introduced in Japan in 1872, when it was decreed that thenceforward each
Reign should have but one Nen-go, or " Year-Period." The x-eseut Chinese
Reign-Period, K-wang'hsii, began in 1875 ; the Japanese, which bears the
title Mei-ji, "Enlightened Rule," commenced on ist January, 1868. The
Gregorian Calendar was introduced, by decree, in Japan en Jst January,
1873. To make chronological matters still more confused, in 1872 a new
era was proposed in Japan, by which all years should be reckoned, viz.,
from 660 B.C., the supposed year of the accession of Jimmu Tenno, the
first Emperor of Japan, according to tradition. Some Japanese adopt

ADMIRAL ITO'S REJOINDER. 157

There are three noteworthy points about this letter,
which breathes Ito's manly spirit in every line. Firstly,
the Japanese admiral was under no obligation to consent
to the condition, proposed by Ting, that the Chinese
officers and men should be allowed to proceed to their
homes, and their Occidental advisers and instructors suffered
to depart scot-free. The granting of this concession was
purely a wise act of mercy on Ito's part, as, further resist-
ance being useless, the Chinese had no course open to
them but to surrender, becoming, ipso facto, prisoners of
war ; the Occidental mercenaries, not being subjects of the
belligerent state, might be treated as pirates, and strung
up to the yard-arm, or handed over to their respective
Governments to be dealt with for breach of the Proclama-
tions of Neutrality.* Secondly, it is interesting to note
Admiral Itd's evident anxiety to induce his great adversary
to come to Japan. This desire arose, not only from the
natural wish to intern, at some place on Japanese soil,
for the sake of prestige, the greatest and ablest of the
country's foes all the Chinese officers taken prisoners so
far having been mere nonentities but also from a sincere
regard for his safety. The Japanese knew that the Chinese
Government would surely behead their only truly great
man if they got him into their power, as they had de-
capitated Captain Fong, one of their best naval officers,
for alleged cowardice, although he had bravely fought his
ship, the Tsi-yuen, against greatly superior forces, off the
Island of Phung, near the western coast of Korea, early
on the 25th July, 1894. Fong had earned the admiration
of his Japanese opponents, and of his German Chiet
Engineer, Herr Hoffmann, and the praise of his chief,

this method, by which A. D. 1898 (sist year of Mei-ji) becomes 2558 A.J.,
that is, the two thousand five hundred and fifty-eighth year since the
foundation of the present Imperial Dynasty, the only one that has ever
reigned in Japan.

* When the French invaded Madagascar, in 1895, they made it widely
known that they would shoot any Englishman, fighting on the Malagasy
side, whom they might capture.

158 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Admiral Ting, who tried to save him, but in vain ; the
literary Mandarins at Peking wanted a scapegoat, and this
brave officer had to die. Probably he could not raise
sufficient funds to bribe his judges into postponing the
execution of the sentence for a year, as in the case ot
the runaway generals from Port Arthur, nominally, to give
the culprits time to reflect on the enormity of their
offence ; really, it is said, to enable them to purchase the
lives of wretched bankrupts, willing to sell their heads to
save their families from ruin and starvation.*

There was another, and a very potent, reason for the
efforts repeatedly made to induce Admiral Ting to come
to Japan. The Japanese hoped that the gallant old sea-
dog, brought under their influence, would, on his return
to China after the war, with his life guaranteed by a
special clause in the Treaty of Peace, become, as he un-
doubtedly would have, a powerful factor in the regenera-
tion of his country. And, lastly, it is noteworthy that the
Japanese commander assures his foe that his word "as
an officer" is sufficient guarantee for him. This is a
thoroughly Japanese idea, and Ting was, probably, the
only Chinese leader of note who could understand it. To
Li Hung-chang it would seem mere foolishness. With
the letter, Admiral Ito sent his old friend some presents
of wines and spirits and tinned delicacies, knowing that
Ting's larder and cellar must need replenishing after the
long bombardment. The liquors sent were champagne,
claret, and whiskey whether the latter was Irish or
Scotch, I know not ; I cannot, therefore, add to the fame
of either country and it is a fact pointing to the dif-
ficulties which surround historical research, even into
recent events, that the brands of wines selected by Admiral

* Cases of the execution of substitutes have occurred repeatedly in
China, although they are by no means common. They give satisfaction
all round. The condemned is, of course, satisfied ; so is the substitute,
who preserves his family, sacred to every Chinese, from want ; so are the
family, and so is the executioner, who is " squared " to overlook the fact
that he has beheaded the wrong man.

ADMIRAL TING'S LAST LETTER. 159

Ito have not been ascertained. For once, the great art
of advertising has been baffled.

On the next day, at 8.30, in the morning, Captain
Chang returned to the Japanese flagship, this time in the
gunboat Chen-chung, flying the Chinese ensign at half-
mast, with another letter from Admiral Ting and the
three cases of gifts. The letter, the last the great Chinese
sailor ever wrote, was to this effect :

" Your answer, just received, gives me much satisfaction on account
of the lives of my men.* I have also to express gratitude for the
things you have sent me, but as the state of war existing between
our countries makes it difficult for me to receive them, I beg to
return them herewith, though I thank you for the thought. Your
letter states that the arms, forts, and ships should be handed over
to-morrow, but that leaves us a very brief interval at our disposal.
Some time is needed for the naval and military folk to exchange
their uniforms for travelling garments,f and it would be difficult to
conform with the date named by you. I, therefore, beg that you
will extend the period and enter the harbour from the 22nd day of
this month, according to the Chinese calendar (i6th of February),
appointing a day for taking over the Liu-kung Island forts, the
armament, and the ships now remaining. I pledge my good faith
in the matter.

(Signed) " TING Ju-chang,

" i8th Day of the First Month (iath February, 1895)."
" To His Excellency Ito,

" Commander-in-Chief, etc.
Returned with the above, three packages of articles."!

How pathetic those words : " the ships now remain-
ing" 1 One can imagine the sturdy old fighter's heart
breaking as he signed away the remnant of his once
mighty fleet. As soon as he had signed the letter to the

* This care for his subordinates, so different from the callous desertion
of their men in defeat usual with the Chinese generals, was a grand
feature of Ting's character.

t I have explained this quaint request in an earlier part of this
Chapter, when dealing with the manner in which the Japanese carried
out the liberation of the Chinese who surrendered at Wei-hai-wei.

Ting was undoubtedly wise in returning ItS's gifts. Had he accepted
them, the Chinese would have said that he sold Wei-hai-wei for a case
of champagne, and by this time it would be a historical " fact." Men
have been branded as traitors in Occidental countries on evidence almost
as slender.

160 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Japanese Admiral, Ting sent a telegram to Li Hung-chang,
retired to his cabin, and deliberately poisoned himself by
swallowing a large dose of opium. His example was
followed by the General commanding the troops, and by
the chief naval and military Staff Officers. They well
knew that their lives were forfeit if they returned to their
homes, and that the probability was that, according to
the terrible punishment for high treason in the Chinese
Code, their whole families, from the hoary grandfather to
the babe in arms, would be exterminated.

The news of Ting's death by his own hand was
brought to Ito by the Chinese officer who carried his late
Admiral's last letter and returned the gifts. The Japanese
Admiral was deeply moved. His grief was bitter, for he
and Ting had been friends, and his admiration for the
brave Chinese sailor's character and ability was profound.
And now, note how the warriors of Japan gave expression
to their respect for their gallant foe who was no more.
The noble tale is best told in the simple language of the
naval documents. The following is an extract from the
tenns of the Capitulation of Wei-hai-wei :

" ARTICLE X. In order to pay due respect to the memory of
Admiral Ting, who died in the discharge of his duty to his country,
Admiral Ito will decline to receive the Chinese warship Kwang-tsi,
but will leave her at the free disposal of Tao-tai Niu Chang-ping "
(the Chinese Civil Governor of Liu-kung Island), " who will carry
away in her the remains of the Admiral and of the other officers
who died with him; these steps to be taken between noon on the
1 6th and noon on the 23rd of February. The ship will be inspected
by Japanese Naval Officers on the morning of the isth."

(By Article V. of the Capitulation, it had been pro-
vided that the Chinese officers, and the foreigners in
Chinese pay, would be allowed to leave Wei-hai-wei, on
parole, in the Kwang-tsi, thus forming, as it were, a body-
guard to their valiant leader's remains. By Article VI.,
they were to be permitted to carry away their personal
effects, but not their arms.)

The next episode of the narrative is supplied by a signal:

ADMIRAL TING'b SUICIDE. 161

General Signal made by the Japanese Flagship Matsitshinta at
10.40, a.m., on i3th February, 1895.

" Vice-Admiral Ting, the enemy's Commander-in-Chief, com-
mitted suicide yesterday, after surrendering his ships, the forts on
Liu-kung Island, and the armaments, garrison and crews. Great
honour and respect must be shown to the spirit of our late gallant
foe, who manfully did his duty to his country. His remains will be
conveyed to a Chinese port in the prize Kwang-tsi, that the Com-
mander-in-Chief will return to the Chinese for the purpose. Ships'
bands are to play only^ funeral marches, or dirges, until the
Kwang-tsi shall have passed out of the lines. Vice-Admiral's
honours are to be paid to the remains by all ships as the Kwang-tsi
passes them. This order is to be communicated to all ships' com-
panies. Torpedo-boats will keep a bright look-out round the fleet
to-night. Watchfulness must not be relaxed."

The last two sentences are characteristic. The Japanese
knew by bitter experience that a Chinese officer's under-
taking was not necessarily to be trusted, and now the one
Chinese leader whose word was his bond was dead. The
Kwang-tsi did not report for inspection, as arranged, until
early on i6th February, having been prevented from leaving
her moorings by very rough weather. The inspecting
officers found in her three torpedos, four guns of small
calibre, and thirty rifles. The torpedos and rifles were taken
out of her, but the guns and blank charges were left, so
that she might fire a salute when her Admiral's body was
brought on board. Her officers and crew were allowed
to remain in charge of the ship. Before she left on her
mournful voyage, the officers of the Japanese fleet, and
many from the troops on shore, visited her to pay their
last tribute of respect to the fallen foe. Slowly they passed
before the coffin, each one solemnly and reverently salut-
ing the remains of the enemy who had fought so stoutly
for his country. The Chinese officers and civil authorities
and the foreigners who witnessed the impressive scene were
deeply moved. As one of the foreign officers in Chinese
pay expressed it : " You would have thought the Japanese
were mourning for their own Admiral." The Chinese
gun-vessel, having taken on board the coffins of the other
L

1 62 THE NEW FAR EAST.

officers who had died by their owri hand, as a grim staff
to sail with the Admiral on his last voyage, embarked the
Chinese officers and foreign instructors liberated on parole,
and steamed for Chi-fu. As she passed through the long
lines of the Japanese squadron, flying at half-mast the
Dragon Flag that Ting had served so faithfully to the
end, every Japanese ship dipped her victorious ensign,
minute-guns were fired, and the "Admiral's Salute" rang
out from Japanese bugles in honour of the gallant enemy
who would fight no more.

And these things that I have truly related were done
by the men of whom we have been solemnly told that
they are " after all, a nation of heathens, barbarians at
heart, with whom civilised Christian Britain cannot, must
not, enter into an alliance" !

" Is Chivalry dead ? " The question was discussed
not many years ago in many columns of a great London
daily of course in the " Silly Season," when the public
freely rushes into amateur and unpaid journalism. The
"Constant Reader," the "Voice from Clapham," "Pater-
familias," "An Englishwoman," "Fairplay," the "Mother
of Six," and our old friend " Audi alter am partem," were
all on the warpath, but the discussion was inconclusive.
If admiration for the thing implies its existence in our
midst, then I can vouch for it that chivalry yet lives
amongst us. I have told the true tale of Admiral Ting's
death, and of Japanese chivalry, on scores of platforms,
to many thousands of men and women, and boys and
girls, high and lowly, throughout the British Isles, from
Aberdeen to Cork, from Liverpool to Dover, and . every
time, after I had narrated the touching story, there was
a moment of deep silence, and then such a rousing
British cheer as gladdens one's soul, for it shows that the
great, warm heart of the People is in the right place
after all.*

* At Newcastle- on-Tyne, after I had told the story at a crowded meet-
ing of the Tyneside Geographical Society, in March, 1896, a sturdy

THE JAPANESE IN FORMOSA. 163

The success of the Japanese in their struggle against
China was so complete, that it will afford a truer test of their
national character if we consider their behaviour in a region
where their progress has been less triumphal, and the
obstacles in their way so great that they have had to strain
every nerve to overcome them. In their splendid new
possession, the beautiful and fertile island of Formosa,
ceded to them, along with the Pescadores, or Ho-Ko
Islands, by China as one of the conditions of the Treaty
of Peace of Shimonoseki, in 1895 the Japanese have had
to contend against both man and nature. Not only were the
Chinese whom they had to defeat members of the redoubt-
able "Black Flag" bands, half soldiers, half banditti, who
inflicted such heavy losses on the French in Tong-king
men of a far different stamp from the " Braves " they had
routed on the mainland but they had to chastise into
obedience, and later to conciliate, the numerous Chinese
population, men of Southern Chinese stock, excitable and
pugnacious, and the still larger number of the Pi-po-hoan,
those aborigines who had adopted the civilisation of their
Chinese conquerors. As to the wild aborigines in the
mountains of the interior, the Japanese, as a rule, are on very
good terms with them, as anybody who has killed one of the
hated Chinese is looked upon by the Formosan savage as
a man and a brother. Moreover, the fairness and humanity
with which the Japanese treated these hill-men, after
chastising where punishment was due, in the expedition
of 1874, undertaken to avenge the murder of shipwrecked
mariners, produced a lasting impression. Nevertheless, the
neighbourhood of their haunts is not a desirable location, as
they are inveterate head-hunters, with a taste for human

Novocastrian, with a "burr" like a drum, went up to a Japanese who
had been amongst the audience, scrunched his delicate hand in the
brawny Northumbrian fist, and said : " Ah ! but you are men, you are.
God bless you!" But the cheers of the Etonians, and of the boys at our
other great public schools, they were worth hearing ! Admiral Ito's ears
must have tingled far away on Far Eastern seas

1 64 THE NEW FAR EAST

brains dissolved in rice-spirit,* and are, occasionally, not very
particular as to the nationality of the person from whose
body they obtain a head to add to their collection. The
hard struggle the Japanese have had before establishing some
degree of order in Formosa was carried on in a tropical
climate, its enervating, steamy heat more dangerous to the
most hardened soldiers than the intense cold averaging
25 Fahrenheit, on one occasion the thermometer marked
30 below freezing-point ! they had borne so well in
Manchuria, and the icy winds of Wei-hai-wei, where the
crackling of the crust of ice on the waters of the Bay used
to betray the movements of the torpedo-boats in their
daring night attacks. Much of the country through which
the Army of Occupation in Formosa had to march, often
fighting every yard of the way with active, unseen foes,
is about as difficult for military movements as Madagascar ;
high, steep, unexplored mountains, clothed with almost
impenetrable jungle, that also fills the deep, narrow gorges
and the precipitous ravines.

In such circumstances, the establishment of Japanese
civil administration in Formosa was attended by so many
obstacles, some of them due to inexperience in the difficult
art of governing alien subject populations, that Japan's
friends began to doubt if order would ever be evolved from
such chaos. Governors followed one another with bewilder-
ing rapidity, and the policy adopted towards the inhabitants
changed with each Governor, now erring by excessive
leniency, construed by the Chinese, as usual, into weak-
ness, anon by extreme harshness, goading the people into
fury. "Carpet-baggers" from Japan swooped down on
the fair island, eager for lucrative official posts, and terrible
tales of shocking tyranny, cruelty, and extortion were
industriously circulated by the enemies of Japan, some

* This gruesome beverage is drunk for the purpose of acquiring the strength
and valour of the deceased. With the same object, Southern Chinese will
buy from the executioner small pieces of the fried liver of a notoriously
brave criminal, and eat them. Whether the Formosan hill-men be cannibals
in the ordinary sense of the term is still a moot point.

A BRITISH WITNESS. 165

Europeans in Formosa spreading blood-curdling reports on
the merest hearsay evidence. Towards the middle of 1896,
the Japanese Government, alarmed at the state of the
Island, seriously devoted its attention, now free from other,
and weightier, preoccupations, to the matter. With what
success its efforts towards reorganisation have been attended,
what the Japanese can do, when they devote themselves to
the task in earnest, with a possession apparently so intract-
able, we may learn from some " Notes of the Work during
1897 f the Formosa Mission of the Presbyterian Church
of England," contributed to The Chinese Recorder by my
valued friend, the Reverend W. Campbell, F.R.G.S., M.J.S.,
of Tai-nan-fu, on the south-western coast of Formosa, a
pioneer of the Gospel amongst the islanders of various
races, as broad-minded as he is devoted. I fancy I can
see his honest Scottish face tanned by many years of
exposure to the Formosan sun, during long wanderings
over the coast plains, or in the mountains amongst the
Head-hunters, with whom he is on terms of intimacy
lighting up with joy as he penned sentences like the
following :

" As already remarked, our Local, or Congregational, Schools form
another department of work in which decided advance has been
made during the past year. The Japanese themselves have also
been giving much attention to education in Formosa, having estab-
lished up till date no fewer than seventeen high-class schools
throughout the Island, at which Chinese youths are being taught the
Japanese language and other subjects. It may be that the stir
thus caused for the pupils attending those seventeen schools receive
a monthly salary from Government funds has had an influence on
our native brethren, but the fact remains that we have very seldom
witnessed a better sustained effort made by them to give their
children a good education."

These " native brethren " are mostly people in humble
life, and would, I dare say, be stigmatised as " pore bloomin'
savages " by the " civilised " parents of corresponding social
status in our midst, who look upon the School Board as
an invention of the Evil One, and its Inspector the " Kid-

166 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Copper " they call him, with lurid adjectives as their deadly
foe. Mr. Campbell further states :

" Under this head it may not be out of place to state that, on
request being made to the proper " (Japanese) " officials, three pupils
of our Blind School were admitted to the Government Institution "
(for the blind) " at Tokio ; and that, in order to secure funds for
their four or five years' residence, a charity concert was held there "
(at Tokio) " which turned out to be a great success ; what gave it
widespread favourable notice being an order from the Imperial
Palace to send one hundred first-class admission tickets. The three
boys who are also members of the Church in Tai-nan-fu, entered
on their duties at the beginning of the winter session, and there
can be little doubt that four years' training at such a high- class,
well-equipped institution will solve the question of their being able
to earn a living for themselves. Many of the Japanese blind make
good wages at massage, a method of treatment often prescribed
by their own medical men ; but, were our three pupils to acquire
nothing more than facility in speaking the language of their adopted
country, immediate use could be made of their services in any of
the public offices in Formosa."

Government Institution for the Blind Charity Concert,
under Imperial patronage, to provide scholarships for three
boys, of Chinese race and a foreign faith great financial
success, and, I presume, an artistic one, too, probably owing
to Miss TANOSHII Yukiko's delicate rendering of an air for
voice and samisen, or the masterly execution of an intermezzo
by MEKURA Mojin, the celebrated blind koto player ! *

* The blind in Japan are, as a rule, either musicians or shampooers
Massage, or shampooing of the body for therapeutic purposes, which has but
recently come into such high favour in the West, has been practised in Japan
for centuries, playing as important a part in native medicine as acupuncture,
or the moxa (this term, one of the few Japanese derivations in English, is a
corruption of the Japanese mogusa, contracted from moye-kusa, "burning-
herb," because of the mugwort, a species of Artemisia, burnt on the body as a
cautery). By a very ancient and wise custom, the practice of the art of
Massage and, to a great extent, the professional playing on the Koto, or Japanese
harp (in appearance more like the dulcimer, the Czimbalom of the Hungarian
Gypsies, and the Tyrolese Zither, it being laid flat on the floor to be played
upon, as those instruments are laid upon a table,) are reserved tor the blind
of both sexes, thus providing them with a livelihood. The blind Amma San,
as the shampooer is called, is a familiar figure, as he taps his way through the
streets with his staff, and his plaintive chaunt "Amma, kami-shimo go-
hiyaku Man!" ("Massage, above and below, for five hundred Mon!"

WHAT THE JAPANESE HAVE DONE 167

One hundred stalls taken by the Imperial Family and the
Court. They do these things well in Japan !

The Rev. W. Campbell closes his "Notes" with the
following words, well worthy of attention, as he is known as
an authority on all things Formosan, and an impartial judge
of the conduct of the island's new masters. His summing-
up shows him to be absolutely free from prejudice, able
to discern high motives in a race who do not follow his
creed.

" In conclusion, a few words may be added on changes which
have taken place since Formosa came under control of the Japanese.
Those beneficial changes have been neither few in number nor easy
of accomplishment, considering the obstacles which had to be over-
come on taking possession of the Island. There was a large popu-
lation oi strange speech, who increased the difficulty of the position
by setting up a mushroom Republic, and inciting each other to
withstand the victorious march of those who were then within
striking distance of Peking. The plain truth upon this subject is
that any brief perusal of Consular Reports and the Peking Gazette
since 1864 places it beyond doubt that, owing to a turbulent spirit
and the prevalence of bad opium-smoking habits now being
vigorously curbed by the" (Japanese) "authorities Formosa has all
along been a difficult Island to govern."

I venture to interrupt my quotation of Mr. Campbell's
remarks in order to explain that the " Mushroom Republic,'
set up by the " Black Flag " Leader, Liu Yung-fu, lasted
just ten days, its second, and last, President, the aforesaid
Liu, ultimately escaping to China disguised as a woman, with
a baby in his arms. It is almost certain that the idea of
establishing a Formosan " Republic " was the suggestion of
some Occidental, for neither Liu nor his predecessor, Tang,

500 Mon=5 Sen, or Cents, i.e. 2% pence,) and the peculiar notes of his
whistle, are typical sounds in every Japanese town. In spite of his moderate
charges for his very soothing ministrations, the A mma San does fairly well, so
well, sometimes, that he accumulates capital, which he lends for a consider-
ation. The blind Koto players are well paid. The instrument has a very
pleasing, harp-like sound. It requires years of study to master it thoroughly,
and the blind players teach the amateurs, who are chiefly ladies. The Samisen
mentioned in the paragraph to which this Note refers, is a three-stringed
banjo, played by women, with a plectrum, called bachi. It was introduced
into Japan, probably from Manila, early in the eighteenth century.

i68 THE NEW FAR EAST.

the last Governor appointed from Peking upon whom Liu
had thrust, at the sword's point, the evanescent honour
of being the first President had any clear conception of
what the word implied. Tang's honours were so uneasily
borne, that Liu had him continually watched, yet he
managed to escape on board a steamship in the harbour
of Tamsui, at two o'clock in the morning of the fifth oi
June, 1895, having induced his vigilant body-guard to look
the other way, the inducement coming from the Presidential
purse to the extent of fifteen thousand dollars. He had,
probably, " squeezed " many in his time ; his turn had come
to undergo the process.* Mr. Campbell speaks of the
opposition encountered in Formosa by the Japanese " who
were then within striking distance, of Peking." The compar-
ative ease with which the victorious Japanese army could
have reached and captured the Sacred Capital of China, after
its "Gate-posts," Port Arthur and Wei-hai-wei, had fallen
into their hands, has not been sufficiently recognised by
Occidentals. Powerful indeed must the reasons have been,
that induced the Japanese to forbear crowning their suc-
cession of victories, by land and sea, with the most ardently-
desired and logical consummation the triumphal entry into
the Imperial City. Various causes have been alleged for the
sudden termination of the war at the very time when every
serious obstacle had, apparently, been cleared from Japan's
path, but the true motive remains a mystery. The Peking
Gazette, mentioned by Mr. Campbell as containing numerous
reports of Formosan lawlessness, is, of course, the Official
Gazette of China, the oldest periodical in the world.f

* Far Eastern "Republics" are short-lived. The one established, with
unofficial French encouragement, in Yezo, the great Northern Island of
Japan, on ayth January, 1869, came to an end in July of the same year.
Its originator was Admiral Yenomoto (or Enomoto), mentioned in Admiral
Ito's letter advising Ting to surrender.

f The Peking Gazette may be described as the Official Gazette of China,
as the documents it publishes (daily Court News, Imperial Decrees,
Rescripts, and Memorials to the Throne), are all authentic, and are
supplied to the Editor by the Imperial Government, but the publication
is a private enterprise.

A SECRET OP SUCCESS. 169

The strict suppression of opium-smoking enforced by
Formosa's new rulers, who have a horror of the insidious
drug a measure Mr. Campbell considers a powerful factor
in the pacification of the island induces bitter comparison,
when it is remembered that Britain forced her opium upon
protesting China at the cost of fierce war. This is how
Mr. Campbell sums up the results of Japanese activity in
Formosa in the face of the difficulties he has described :

" As one, therefore, who wishes to see it " (the Island) " prospering
in every good sense of the word, and in view of what the Japanese
have done for its welfare within the past eighteen months, I cannot
here withhold an expression of gratitude for their arrival. The
officials with whom we are privileged to come in contact are
courteous and always ready to make every reasonable concession ;
while it is simply marvellous what they have been able to accomplish
in the way of surveying, census-taking and road-making ; in setting
up civil, police and military establishments; in opening postal and
telegraph offices, and in the appointment of a regular service of
steamers round the Island and to the Pescadores. Their efforts in
the matter of education I have already referred to."

Mark the good Missionary's final words ; they condense
into a few lines the secret of the success of New Japan :

" Probably no Eastern nation has come in for a larger share of
European flattery, lecturing, and mean, ungenerous criticism than
the Japanese ; but they manage to quietly hold on their way, well
knowing that they have a lofty purpose in view. May God enable
them abundantly to realise it! Long live the Emperor!"

In the preceding pages of this Chapter, I have endeavoured
to show how those who guide the destinies of New Japan
strove to attain their " lofty purpose " during the struggle
with their huge adversary ; I have cited some examples of
the tools they have at hand for its accomplishment the
valour, the devotion, the chivalry of the people. It may be
objected that these qualities would, naturally, come very
much to the fore at a period of intense patriotic enthusiasm,
and that a time of stress and storm is not a fitting
opportunity for the study of a nation's conduct in ordinary
circumstances. I cannot fall in entirely with this view,
for history teaches us that it is in times of national

i yo THE NEW FAR EAST.

emergency the worst as well as the best points of a
people's character are most plainly manifested. Yet, it is
right that an answer should be given to the question :
" How does this warlike nation behave in piping times ol
peace?" The unhesitating reply must be; "Admirably
well ! " The men who " rushed " the forts with irresistible
fury, who manned torpedo-boats in night attacks within
the enemy's harbour work so daring that it would
have warmed the cockles of Nelson's heart and set the
blood tingling in Cochrane's veins these very men are,
at home, units in the most peaceful, the most cheerful,
the most law-abiding, the kindliest population in the
world. Patiently and industriously toiling for a pittance
that suffices to provide them not only with the necessaries
of life, but with enjoyments unknown to the nations of
rougher fibre pleasures simple in themselves, but aesthe-
tically complete the great mass of the Japanese nation
go through life with a smile on their lips, a courteous
word on their tongues, and in their hearts that kindness
towards their fellow-creatures, that tender love for children,
and that absence of selfishness that amply compensate for
their "impersonality of mind/' their "inability to grasp
abstract ideas," and similar sad shortcomings of which they
have been convicted by learned investigators.

Why, then, if the Japanese possess such admirable
qualities, should their character have often been so merci-
lessly criticised by people whose reputation, learning, and
opportunity for close study entitle their opinions to our
respect ? Chiefly because the critics were, perhaps uncon-
sciously, irritated by the fulsome stream of undiscriminating
praise poured out on the Japanese by indiscreet friends
some true, others false whose lavish flattery has done
more harm to the nation than their bitterest foes have
ever inflicted. A reaction was bound to set in against
the exaggerated praise uttered by those who choose, either
from excessive enthusiasm, or from motives of personal
interest, to give a one-sided view of Japanese life,

THE JAPANESE NOT ANGELS: 171

ignoring anything that might cast a shadow over the glow-
ing picture. If you want to become aware of a man's
defects, even the smallest, you have only to let people
know that he is, in your opinion, very near perfection.
It is the same with nations ; we were never told of the
heinous sins, the general moral turpitude and intellectual
limitations of the Japanese until a score, or more, ot
writers had depicted them as almost angelic beings. No,
the Japanese are not angels ; they are just human beings,
with the in-born passions and instincts, and the restraints,
some inherited, some acquired, that go to make up
that strange compound of apparent contradictions common
to human nature the world over. Consequently, although
" impersonality," that is, a very general conformity to certain
national characteristics, may be a distinctive feature of the
Far Eastern mind, it is unsafe to generalise about the
Japanese, for of no race of human beings not even of
the Chinese, whose habit of thought crystallised centuries ago
can a picture be drawn that will be a faithful present-
ment of every individual. Exceptions may be rare amongst
the people of Eastern Asia, gregarious by instinct, and
enthralled, to our individualistic minds, by rules of conduct
and modes of thought, adopted ages ago, and not easily cast
off, that give an identical direction to the ideas of millions,
but the exceptions must be taken into account if we would
judge clearly. Taking note of the exceptions, it is absolutely
safe to pronounce the Japanese of to-day a good nation.

But as I have said, they are not angels, far from it.
There are Japanese murderers, Japanese thieves of various
kinds burglars who force bolts and bars, and enter, in spite
of the heavy wooden shutters, the amado, in the night-time,
house-breakers (to break into a Japanese house in the
day-time a fist has only to be put through a paper screen, the
shoji*} pickpockets (or rather "cut-sleeves," for the sleeve is

* A Japanese house consists, practically, of four wooden corner-posts, stand-
ing in stone sockets resting on the ground, and supporting a heavy roof tiled,
thatched, or shingled. The floor is a platform, covered with thick mats ; the

172 THE NEW FAR EAST.

the Japanese pocket,) forgers, swindlers, the new civilisa-
tion has opened up channels previously undreamt of for their
unholy enterprise and political bravos, the Soshi, a curse of
New Japan. There are Japanese impostors sometimes
of the religious variety, collectors for bogus missions
quacks, begging-letter writers, and fraudulent company
promoters in fact, almost every kind of evil-doer known
in the West is to be found in New Japan. (The wicked
plumber has not yet made his appearance.) But the
number of these criminals is far from alarming. Taken as a
whole, the people are wonderfully law-abiding, honest, docile,
respectful to those in authority over them and to the aged,
loving to their children, dutiful and affectionate in their
conjugal relations, according to their ideas of the relative
position of the sexes, devoted and subject to their parents
to a degree hardly to be imagined by Occidentals, kind
and helpful to all. Their good humour is proverbial, their
intelligence universally recognised ; their artistic feeling has
no parallel amongst modern nations in its absolute
spontaneity, its true taste, and its general diffusion amongst
the masses. Their patriotism, their loyalty, and their
heroic valour are patent to the whole world by their
manifestations in the war with China. Yet, I must repeat
the warning, they are but men and women, with the foibles
and frailties we are all heirs to ; we must not let our
discovery of the fact bias our judgment, however disap-
pointing it may be to find that there is no perfect
nation.

Unfortunately for the reputation of the Japanese, it
is to the most serious, the most critical amongst those
who have studied their character, that its defects have
been most frequently revealed. It is the Occidental who
has had occasion to deal with the Japanese in the serious
business of life who is, as a rule, their least clement

space between the corner-posts may be left open in summer, or it may be
wholly, or partly, shut in by the shoji (sliding screens of semi-transparent
paper) ; at night it is closed by heavy wooden sliding-panels, the amado.

BUT COURTEOUS, MERRY, GENTLE, GOOD: 173

critic, for reasons I shall endeavour to explain later. The
traveller, on pleasure bent, the artist revelling in the charm
of the scenery and in the glories of the art of Japan,
the people of leisure, seeking a Lotos Land, all these
return from Japan fired with enthusiasm for the lovely
country, and all aglow with sympathy for the good,
courteous} merry people who have made their sojourn
amongst them a time ot delight. Who has travelled far
from the " Treaty Ports " which are in their morals much
like ports all over the world into the real Japan without
bringing away golden memories, to last a life-time, of
innumerable little acts of kindness and consideration
experienced at the hands of the people, mostly from those
of the poorer class that, in Anglo-Saxon countries, look upon
a stranger with dislike, and upon courtesy as a loss ol
dignified independence ? The helpful people who so busily
assisted to mend his broken-down jin-riki-sha ; the total
strangers who performed those many little acts of cere-
monious courtesy, evidently sincere and entirely disin-
terested ; the good landlady of the little inn at the village
in the mountains, who was so genuinely distressed when he
came in, wet to the skin, from a long walk in the rain it
can rain in Japan and it does, about every other day, except
in the dry autumn and nursed him, as if he were her own
son, when he had that dreadful cold in consequence ; the
sturdy Kuruma-ya who dragged him in his baby-carriage,
at a swinging trot, for miles, in all weathers, at a charge
of about threepence a mile, and who doubled himself up
in lowest obeisance on receipt of a gratuity a British cab-
man would hardly acknowledge with a "thank-you" all
these linger in the traveller's recollection, mellowed by
the golden haze of the past tense, as dear, familiar friends.
As he surveys the cherished odds and ends that bring
back every scene of his delightful journey so vividly to his
mind his bill for the hatago (supper, bed and breakfast ;
lights, fire, bath and attendance included) at the yadoya, the
inn, clean as a new pin, at the end of the village, situated

174 THE NEW fAR EAST.

just where the most beautiful view of the valley, the lake, or
the bay is to be obtained a bill half a yard long, amount-
ing to less than three shillings ; the annai-jo, or letter of
recommendation, on decorated paper, with which mine host
passed him on to the next inn-keeper on the road, the little
paper wrappers in which the ko-ydji, the slender wooden
tooth-picks, were handed to him ; the fan with a view of the
hostelry, and the little blue cotton towel, with a flight
of white birds across it, that were presented to him, with
all the solemnity of an investiture at court, when he
departed, after bestowing largesse (the customary chadai,
nominally for the tea consumed, which never figures in the
bill, being & discretion,) to the tune of eighteen-pence, or
even two shillings, if he remembered that every foreigner is
supposed to be a millionaire on his travels ; all these letter,
wrappers, fan and towel each one a dainty little work
of art applied to the humblest purposes, transport him back
to the fair land.

How well he remembers, too, the departure from
the yadoya, the landlord and landlady wishing him a
pleasant journey with parental solicitude, the row of plump
little waitresses, in their charming costume, bowing, all
together, and smiling, as only Japanese girls can smile, and
twittering : " Mata irashai ! " (" Please come again ! ") and
the young schoolmaster, who had been fetched in, the
night before, " because he could speak English " local belief
being scarcely borne out by his perspiring, gallant struggles
(resulting in : "I am very grad wercome honourabre foreign
guest. You from Rondon come ? Misteru Herbert Spencer
book I dirigently study. It is very important 1 ") and
the dignified policeman, saluting stiffly, the same who lent
the table and chair, typical of advanced administrative re-
form, from the Police Station for the greater comfort of the
I-jin San (" Mr. Foreigner,") unused to squat on his heels
and to eat off a table the height of an ordinary footstool ;
the children, too, those absolutely delightful little people,
in raiment bright as humming-bird's plumage, bowing as

AND HAPPY THOUGH POOR! 175

ceremoniously as any of their elders ! The whole episode
is lived over again, and memories dearer still haunt the
traveller's mind. He cannot forget, nor does he wish to,
the winsome ways of sweet O Kiku San, prettiest of Gei-sha
(every traveller's particular Gei-sha is always the prettiest in
all Japan), the little fairy with the roguish eyes and the
baby hands, who dressed with such exquisite taste, and
taught him, amidst peals of silvery laughter, to play
kitsune-ken, and other games of forfeits ; the smile of
Komurasaki San, the inn-keeper's charming daughter, is
a tender reminiscence, and every day of his journey is
marked in his memory with the face of some demure
little damsel who waited on him at an inn kneeling
near him, ready to pour out the safe, or to fill the
rice-bowl, and teaching his great, clumsy, Occidental
fingers to manipulate the slender " eating-sticks." And all
these fascinating recollections blend together in the re-
membrance of that melodious word perchance the last one
he heard as he left the Enchanting Isles, maybe from
the lips of a regretful musume wherewith the Japanese so
well express " the sweet sorrow of parting" : " Sayonara ! "
Small matter for wonder if memories such as these
drive out of the traveller's mind all resentment against
the "curio "-dealer, who sold him forged antiquities,
the artful guide and interpreter, who took his "squeeze"
from every purchase, the drunken wharf-labourer who
reeled against him at Yokohama (sak having been the
cause, his intoxication would, at all events, be evanescent),
the ruffian of the same class, sober but truculent (con-
taminated by intercourse with the scum of all nations),
who was rude to him on the hatoba, the wharf, at Kobe.
These petty annoyances are forgotten, as indeed they
may well be, for they were almost unperceived in the
whirl of surprises, each more delightful than the last, and
the joy of feeling one's self surrounded by kind, courteous,
gentle people, who have verily solved the great problem
how to be happy though poor.

176 THE NEW PAR EAST.

Two other problems have been solved by the people
of Japan ; they have discovered, ages ago, how to be
deferential without loss of dignity, and how to frame
the soft answer that turneth away wrath. In the art
of living amongst their fellow-men, that savoir vivre which
is the most difficult art of all, they are past-masters. In
courtesy of speech and demeanour, the humblest Japanese
could give points to many in the well-dressed, well-
groomed mob that calls itself " Society " in Occidental
countries. Note the demeanour of a Japanese crowd
and the streets of the populous cities are usually crowded;
at the time of a festival they swarm with people. Observe
the low bows and polite apologies exchanged by people,
of the poorest class, who have inadvertently come into
collision, the readiness with which a way is made for the
bearer of a burden and think of the husky " 'Oo are
you a-shovin' of ? " so frequent in our holiday multitudes.
Walk through the clean, soft, yielding Japanese crowd,
perfectly sweet to the nostrils, with just a faint odour of
fa-ko, the musky perfume wherewith the boxes are scented
in which they keep their best clothes ; you will pass
along, without the slightest difficulty, merely by the
exercise of a little patience. Think of the state of your
ribs and your toes were you to elbow your way ("to elbow
your way" a Japanese would not understand the phrase!)
through the crowd thronging the streets of London City
to witness the poor pageant of the Lord Mayor's Show.
Remember how one is hustled in a Berlin crowd, pushed
unceremoniously off a New York side- walk, jostled in a
Boulevard throng, the latter, however, somewhat restrained
by the fear of une affaire d'honneur if apology be not
quickly tendered. Strange code of "honour," that demands
blood to wipe out an injury to a corn ! Amongst the
thousands pouring through the main streets of a Japanese
city on the day of a matsuri, a popular festival, you may,
occasionally, see a man too festive from unwise potations
of sakt you will never see an intoxicated woman ; nor

A LANGUAGE WITHOUT SWEAR-WORDS. 177

will you hear any voice raised in anger above the level
of the rippling, laughing chatter of the merry crowd.
Wherever you may be amongst Japanese, you will never
be shocked by the disgusting blasphemy and obscenity
that assail the ears in almost every Occidental land, but
especially, alas ! in English-speaking countries. The fact
is, the Japanese cannot swear, even if he had a mind to ;
his language will not allow itself to be thus defiled it
contains absolutely no "swear-words." This limitation has
its inconveniences ; when a Japanese takes to playing golf
he is obliged to learn English.

From what I have stated, it may be gathered that
the Japanese are a nation delightful to live with under
ordinary conditions of every-day intercourse between
friends, acquaintances, or even strangers. The moment
the Occidental's relations with them point to his having
a material object in view, presumably for his own benefit,
their character undergoes, in most instances, an unwelcome
change. The man who lands in Japan with the intention
of making a fortune, or of carving out a career at the
expense of the natives, has bitter disappointments in store.
The competition is daily growing keener and more em-
bittered, not only amongst the resident Occidentals,
especially between the old settlers and the new-comers,
but between them and the Japanese, who, day by day,
become capable of producing for themselves many articles
they were formerly obliged to import, and of dispensing,
in nearly all directions, with the help of Occidental
brains. Keen competition does not tend to soften hearts,
nor to promote the cultivation of courtly manners, and
there are other influences at work to make the impatient
Occidental merchant, who sees his rate of profit dwindling,
the disappointed contract-seeker, and the Foreign Adviser
nearing the end of his engagement, take a gloomy view
of the character of the Japanese. The very people whose
simple dignity and cheerful humour, whose unfailing
kindness and exquisite courtesy, would fill him with
M

iy8 THE NEW FAR EAST.

admiration in any other circumstances, become simply
exasperating when the eager Occidental lets it be under-
stood and the quick-witted Japanese perceive his motive
long before he thinks fit to reveal it that he is aiming
at personal benefit of some sort. Nor is it necessary,
to produce this disagreeable transformation, that the
foreigner's motive be purely selfish. Even if the success
of the business, of the scheme of reform, or of the new
development of any kind, that he is proposing must inevit-
ably bring increased prosperity to certain Japanese, or benefit
the whole nation, the mere fact that a foreigner would
participate immediately in the profits, or even only in
the honour and the glory of the results, is sufficient to
arouse the hostility, open or latent, of the majority 01
Japanese. The best men in the country's service, the
wisest of Japan's statesmen, the most enlightened of her
writers and thinkers, the foremost amongst her financiers,
her manufacturers and merchants, do not share this feeling
of shortsighted exclusiveness. They deplore it, and are
working manfully to eradicate it, but they have a hard task
before them. The feeling is one that Britons and Americans,
accustomed to extend a warm welcome to enterprise that
will benefit them, no matter whence it comes, or of what
nationality their partners in the undertaking may be,
cannot understand. Their marvellous prosperity has ad-
vanced, by "leaps and bounds," by means of that very
broadness of view, the introduction of which into Japan
is now the chief aim of her really great statesmen.

The spirit of exclusiveness they are battling against, to
which I shall refer more in detail in a future Chapter dealing
with economic matters, is not confined, as one might expect,
to the trading community. It obtains, unfortunately, to a
regrettable extent amongst the less enlightened officials and
politicians, who have a large following amongst the Shi-zoku
and, consequently, amongst those still lower in the social
scale. The display of this feeling, the utterance, in
the Press, in Parliament, and on the platform, of the cry :

EXPLOITERS EXPLOITED. 179

"Japan for the Japanese, and for nobody else !" are sure
means of gaining cheap popularity, of a kind not unknown
nearer home. How many absolute nonentities have climbed
into prominence in French politics to the accompaniment
of frantic shouts of " I'etranger, voild I'ennemi ! " Thus also
in Japan, I'etranger fares badly with his proposals, unless
he have the rare good fortune to lay them before one of
the realty enlightened leaders, and the latter happen to be
in power, and strong enough to contend with the national
prejudice, the popular fear of being " exploited," as was often
the case in the early days of New Japan, by the foreigner.

This fear is all the more notable, in that the Japanese
have a very good idea of how to " exploit " others. They
are the most expert " brain - pickers " in the world.
Strangely enough, they are ever ready to accuse others of
the practice. It is a common subject of complaint with
them that in many "translations" from the Japanese, and
in numerous, more or less scientific, books on Japan by
Occidental authors, the services of the " Native Assistant,"
who has contributed so materially, in most cases essen-
tially, to the work, are curtly acknowledged in a brief
mention in the Preface. They seem oblivious of the fact
that they adopt a precisely similar course in many excel-
lent publications written by Japanese in foreign languages,
but revised and "prepared for press" by "Foreign Assis-
tants." Some Japanese are remarkable linguists although
the Chinese are their superiors in this respect and some
of Japan's statesmen and diplomatists write and speak
European languages, especially English, German, and
French, with perfect accuracy and fluency, but more than
one able public address, delivered by a less gifted Japanese
in a foreign tongue, has owed its absolutely correct periods,
its elegant diction, at which the audience marvelled
greatly, to the polishing process undertaken by an anony-
mous foreign reviser. It is thus a fair game of " give
and take," and there is not much harm in the practice
after all.

i8o THE NEW FAR EAST.

The feeling of exclusiveness in matters of material
benefit, and even of purely sentimental kudos, shelters itself,
of course, like so many other unworthy or unwise motives,
under that ill-used word " Patriotism." The Japanese, who
are happy in the possession of the real patriotism, in its
purest and highest forms, should have no need to indulge
in displays of spurious varieties. The true cause underlying
the exclusive spirit I am describing is a deep-rooted mistrust
of the foreigner and of his aims, a feeling of suspicion born
of centuries of strictest seclusion from the outer world, conse-
quent on a bitter experience, in the seventeenth century, of
the intrigues of foreigners whose internecine strife wrecked
the noble work of their immediate predecessors, the
men who had raised the edifice of Christian Japan. From
the expulsion of the Portuguese and Spanish to the advent,
of Commodore Perry, the Dutch and Russians were,
with the exception of a few British who laboured under the
disadvantage of prejudice fostered by their commercial
rivals, the only white men from whose behaviour the
Japanese could form any estimate of the character of the
peoples of the Christian world, and the examples were not
calculated to excite their admiration or their respect. The
few glimpses they had of the Muscovites were not
encouraging, and seem to have strengthened their deter-
mination to seal up their country more closely than ever.
As to the Dutch, we may easily imagine what a proud,
chivalrous, military nation like the Japanese, amongst whom
trade of any kind was, until 1871, an occupation no
gentleman could stoop to in fact, classed below agriculture
and all crafts thought of the money-grubbing Hollanders,
who submitted willingly to gross indignities for the privilege
of trading at Nagasaki.

And with the opening of Japan to the trade of the
world came, in the 'fifties and the 'sixties, it should be re-
membered, not only reputable merchants, diplomatists, naval
and military men, physicians and missionaries, but, in their
train, a motley crew of adventurers, flotsam and jetsam ol

AT2ITUDE TOWARDS FOREIGNERS. 181

the Pacific Coast and the China Seas, rowdies from the gold-
diggings of California and of Australia, " Beach-combers "
from the South Sea Islands, naval deserters, unfrocked
priests, an epitome of Occidental vices and follies let. loose
to prey upon an unprepared nation just awakening from
its torpor of two centuries. It makes one blush to think of
the barefaced swindles that were perpetrated to the detri-
ment of the Japanese in those days, of the brutality of the
San Francisco " Hoodlums," and the Australian " Larrikins"
towards Japanese women and defenceless "coolies," and
the vulgar arrogance of British cads of the type that strolls
about amongst the kneeling worshippers in a foreign cathe-
dral, talking loudly the while, and goes to the opera in
Paris in a bicycling suit. And the outrages and the
arrogance brought bloody reprisals, not always on their
perpetrators, for, in such cases, the innocent usually suffer
for the guilty. In one notorious instance, at least, under-
bred arrogance met with prompt and terrible punishment.

When it is considered what an impression must have
been made on the Japanese mind by the first foreigners
with whom they were brought into close contact in
modern times and, unfortunately, nations are prone to
accept the worst specimen of a foreign race as typical of
the whole on what a stock of traditional hatred and
contempt the new hostility was grafted, and how fuel
was added to the flame by the merciless indemnities
exacted, with fire and sword, by the foreign Powers
for the outrages committed on their subjects, who had
often provoked them ; when we add to all this the
manifest injustice displayed, for many years, by the
same Powers in their dealings with Japan, and now
the wound is still raw the iniquity of the Russo-Franco-
German intervention in 1895, an( i the Russian grabbing of
Port Arthur in 1898, it seems nothing short of marvellous
that the Japanese are as friendly to foreigners as we
find them.

Time heals all, and in the course of a few years

182 THE NEW FAR EAST.

things proceed rapidly in New Japan the mistrust at
present inspired by the Occidental will disappear, especially
in the case of the peoples against whom Japan has no
grudge, but rather a debt of gratitude. The people of
Britain stand foremost amongst these ; Japan will never
forget it was Britain that first consented to treat her on
an equal footing. Until that happy time comes, the
Occidental must apply himself, if he would succeed in
Japan, to establishing a feeling of mutual confidence that
will dispel the national habit of suspicion. For it is a
national habit, and applies, although to a less degree, to
the relations of the Japanese amongst themselves. This
ingrained suspiciousness is, without doubt, the result of
two centuries and a half of a Government which relied,
as that of the Tokugawa Shogun undoubtedly did, for
its efficiency on an elaborate system of spying. The
Shogun at Yedo spied on his Councillors, the Councillors
on the officials, the officials on the people, and the
people on one another. The feudal Lords, the Daimiyo,
themselves spied upon by the Shoguris Government
(whose spies swarmed also about the Imperial Court at
Kioto), spied upon their Kard, or Councillors, when the
Lords were not, as was often the case, mere puppets in
the hands of their Kard ; in every Clan the spying system
was but a replica of that organised at Yedo, and the Clans,
jealous, always intriguing, frequently hostile, spied upon
one another. This system has left two legacies to New
Japan, one good, the other bad : the most efficient detective
police in the world, and the unfortunate habit of exaggerated
mistrust. The curious thing about this suspiciousness is that
the Japanese affect not to be aware of its existence. Ask
a Japanese: "Why are your people so mistrustful, so
suspicious ? " He will reply : " We are not suspicious at
all." And, as he says it, his eyes are boring through you,
to try and discover the hidden, and presumably interested,
motive that prompted your query.

With other charges that are most frequently brought

VIRTUES AND VICES. 183

against the character of the modern Japanese I propose
to deal, as opportunity offers, in subsequent Chapters
treating of subjects in connection with which the alleged
vices, or defects, may most fittingly be considered. For
instance, the allegation of commercial dishonesty will,
naturally, be most conveniently investigated in the course
of the Chapter on " The Almighty Dollar ; " that of lack of
chastity will be examined in the Chapter on " The Women
of the New Far East." Impartially looked into, some of
the charges brought against the people of New Japan
cannot be sustained, others admit of extenuation, almost
all will have to be retracted within a generation.

Taking them all in all, the people of New Japan have
no great vices ; they have no glaring defects that cannot
be removed, as they probably will be before many years
elapse. For the nation, thoroughly in earnest, is eager
to fit itself for the great part it is destined to play in the
Far East and in the world at large. Truly, again to use
the words of the good Missionary in Formosa : " They
have a lofty purpose in view. May God enable them
abundantly to realise it I "

184

CHAPTER IV.
THE MEN OF OLD CHINA.

OLD that is the epithet which comes inevitably to the mind
as the most distinctive one to apply to the huge Empire of
China. Although the momentous events that mark the
closing years of the nineteenth century have transformed
Eastern Asia into the New Far East, China, paradoxical as
it may seem, still remains Old China. Japan has been re-
born within the last thirty years of the century ; Korea,
an epitome, till late in the 'seventies, of the China of three
hundred years ago, has been rudely shaken out of her
long sleep, turned inside out and upside down, and
tumbled into a confused heap, out of which something
totally unlike her former self will be gradually and pain-
fully evolved. China alone remains unchanged, unreformed,
Old China to the backbone.

" What ? " I fancy I can hear the Reader exclaim,
"has China shown no signs of progress since her crushing
defeat by the allied British and French, in 1860, humbled
her pride ? Has she not, in many ways, indicated that
the great lesson of her complete collapse before the arms
of little Japan is beginning to bear fruit ? " The answer
must be a negative one. To begin with, China's defeat
by the two allied Powers would that their alliance
could be re-established for the good of humanity ! was
never looked upon by the Chinese as a "crushing" one.
Those Chinese who, at any time, bestow a thought on
the subject, as very few of them do, argue, with truly

ANOTHER VIEW OF THE WAR. 185

Oriental logic, that the allies cannot have been victorious,
else they would have established their rule at Peking. It
must have been, they say, fear of the punishment that
would overtake them, for their criminal insolence, when
the Son of Heaven had completed his preparations to
that end, that caused the Foreign Devils to retire from
the gates of the Imperial City. The same reasoning
satisfies the average Chinese, living away from the coast,
who know anything about the war with Japan by no
means a majority of the nation that the presumptuous
"Dwarfs" retired from the sacred soil of China just in
time to avoid the annihilation that was inevitable once
the Imperial Power had really begun to exert itself.
Otherwise, they maintain, would the Japanese have
refrained from marching into Peking ? Would they not
be ruling there now ? They are not there ; consequently
they must have been smitten with awe by the mere
rumours of the tremendous preparations that were being
made to chastise their impertinence, the thousands of new
bows and arrows that were in process of manufacture, the
assembling of hordes of "Braves" under the walls of
the capital, and so forth. In short, the vast majority of
China's teeming millions know nothing of the collapse,
in two campaigns within thirty-five years, of the defensive
forces of the Empire, and -the minority who witnessed it
on either occasion attributed their country's defeat to any
causes but the real ones, ascribing it to reasons involving
no national humiliation whatever, no condemnation of the
obsolete principles of government and the crass ignorance
that brought their power into the dust. The most striking
" object lessons " ever given to a great Empire were thus
wasted on the bulk of the population of China.

But, it may be objected, what of the tangible proofs of
China's awakening of which so much has been heard ?
What of the desire, evident for years past, to profit by
the latest discoveries of Western science, at all events
for purposes of national defence ? Surely, China had a

T 86 THE NEW FAR EAST.

fleet of ironclads ; she had regiments armed with modern
weapons and drilled by Occidental Instructors ; she has
some still. What of the telegraph lines extending through-
out her immense territory ? What of the railways, some
in operation, some being constructed, and a great many
more projected ? Why, to judge by the newspaper
reports, the whole vast Empire will soon be covered with
a network of trunk lines and branch lines ! In every
Club smoking-room the talk is all of the line from Some-
thing-king to Somewhere-fu, and who is going to get the
concession for it; and in the library the maps of China
are becoming frayed at the edges, cut at the folds, and
are scored all over by the toothpicks of experts, tracing
the course of the iron roads so soon to exist. Are there
not Colleges in China, where students are carefully trained
in all the Western sciences ? Have not scores, perhaps
hundreds, of intelligent young men been educated in
America, and some in Europe, at the cost of the Chinese
Government ? Think of the impetus that must have been
given to the advancement of China by the journey of
her greatest statesman. Surely the thoughts of Ll Hung-
chang, brought face to face, on that memorable tour, with
Occidental civilisation in its most striking manifestations,
must be bearing fruit ? We know that he possesses the
ability to profit by the knowledge thus acquired, for long
before he left China he had conceived the idea of pro-
viding his country with defensive forces of the most
modern type, selecting, with rare strategical insight, the
two points where the approaches to Peking from the sea
could best be commanded, and causing German and French
skill to convert them, at immense cost, into fortresses
deemed practically impregnable till they fell before the
fierce onslaught of the Japanese.

Then, is it to be assumed, even for a moment, that
long years of devoted missionary labours, embracing
scholastic and medical efforts, have not leavened the
masses of China with the germs of a new, and higher,

WHY THE CHINESE SHIPS WERE LOST. 187

civilisation ? Consider, too, the object lesson the Chinese
have had before their eyes, for so many years, in the
well-ordered Foreign Settlements at Shanghai, and in
the thriving British Colony of Hongkong. See the un-
mistakable evidences of the fitness of the Chinese for
intelligent activity in every branch of commercial enter-
prise to be found in the flourishing condition of the
Chinese trading under the British flag in the Straits
Settlements. Look at the type of high official that is
sent abroad to represent the Empire at foreign Courts.
"Only the other night," the Objector will tell me, "I
heard His Excellency the Chinese Minister at the Court
of St. James's, Sir Lo Feng-lu, make a speech at .a
public dinner one of the best and wittiest after-dinner
orations I have ever heard, and in excellent, idiomatic
English. In the course of it His Excellency casually
quoted Shakespeare, Milton, and Tennyson, and men-
tioned, just by the way, that he had translated Blackstone
into Chinese. I sat next to one of the Secretaries of the
Imperial Legation ; such a pleasant companion, in lovely
blue silk, who chatted away, in perfect English, on the
folly of the Anti- Vaccination Movement, and on the
Incidence of Local Taxation in the United Kingdom.
If that is not a sign of New China, what is ? "

Thus speaks the Objector, and I answer him once
more, deliberately, that the enormous, inert Empire
between Russia in Asia and British India is still the Old
China of yore.

I shall take the Objector's points seriatim. China had
a fleet of powerful ironclad battleships, and cruisers and
torpedo-boats I shall not enumerate their quaint names,
for nearly all those that are not at the bottom of the sea,
beyond hope of salvage, now bear Japanese names but
to what do the masses in China attribute the loss of their
fine ships ? To the " fact," amongst other equally cogent
reasons, that their eyes having been poked out by their
malevolent German and British constructors, the poor ships

1 88 THE NEW FAR EAST.

were unable to avoid the enemy's shells and torpedos !
The hawse-holes of the steel monsters could not possibly
serve to guide them in the sea-fights. Now, if they
had possessed a pair of well-painted eyes at the bows,
like every decent junk, the result would surely have been
victory for the Dragon Flag. Lest it should be thought
that opinions of this kind are held only by the common
herd, it ought to be known that the Mandarin charged
with the inquiry into a railway accident near Tien-tsin,
in 1898 China possessed at the time but three hundred
and twenty miles of railways in operation, but they had
already attained to the dignity of an accident expressed
his belief that the disaster was caused by the absence of
eyes, which ought to have been painted on the engine.
As to China's "foreign-drilled" troops, I shall have
occasion to refer to them in a subsequent Chapter deal-
ing with naval and military matters, but suffice it to say
now that most Chinese are agreed that the Occidental
weapons and training adopted for a part and a smail
part only of their motley army are totally unsuited to
the idiosyncrasies of the Chinese warrior, hampering his
agility and thwarting his native valour. They look upon
the introduction of foreign drill and the attempt at foreign
discipline in the armies of certain Viceroys not all the
Viceroys have called in the aid of Occidental military
science, and there is, practically, no organised Imperial
army, in our sense of the word, for service throughout the
Empire much as our wooden-headed old Admirals of
former days looked upon the introduction of "tea-kettles,"
as they called steamships, into the Navy, as their successors
regarded, and bitterly opposed, armoured vessels and,
quite recently, breech-loading ordnance ; much as the
peppery veterans in our Service Club windows and, it is
to be feared, not a few younger than they and still in
command condemn our " short service " system, our
magazine rifles, our scientific officers, and every other
innovation, tending, in their opinion, to " send the Service

HOW CHINA MIGHT .HAVE WON. 189

to the dogs, sir ! " The great fault the average Chinese
finds with the "new-fangled" Occidental arms of pre-
cision is their shortness. Your true Chinese likes a weapon
with a good long handle a trident, or a crescent-pronged
spear, for choice about ten feet long ; it keeps the enemy
so much further off.

During the war between China and Japan, I was con-
versing one day with a highly-educated young Chinese
official, of high rank for his age, who had a perfect com-
mand of English. I was expressing the hope, in which
I felt sure one so thoroughly imbued, as I thought, with
Occidental ideas, would concur, that China would profit
by the terrible lesson she was receiving. To my astonish-
ment, he replied that he had apprehended some such
disaster, for, he said : " Our people should not be expected
to fight with European weapons, and according to methods
foreign to their national spirit. I believe we would defeat
the Japanese, were our men to oppose them with the
arms we have always found suitable, and according to
our ancient rules of warfare, that enabled us in the past
to subdue so many nations of the East." Bows and
arrows, matchlocks, "stink-pots," tridents, and shields with
ugly faces painted on them - to terrify the enemy these
used and bows and tridents were used against Melinite
shells, smokeless powder, quick-firing ordnance, range-
finders, the Murata rifle, the bayonet, revolvers, and
machine-guns ! Poor China !

As a matter of fact, the modern destructive engines
are not at all beyond the comprehension of carefully-
trained Chinese. They can, when properly led, use them
with deadly effect, as was proved by the stout defence ot
Wei-hai-wei under the gallant Admiral Ting, and the
heavy losses inflicted on the Japanese on several occasions
during the attack; but the result showed that courage,
endurance, and skill in the use of perfect arms, even
under gallant and experienced leadership, cannot enable
the Chinese to prevail, on land or sea, against the same

190 THE NEW FAR EAST.

conditions plus perfect organisation, military spirit, and
scientific tactics. The fact is worth remembering by those
who talk so glibly of a Chinese army, under British
officers, holding in check and presumably defeating, if
necessary, the legions of the Tsar.

The telegraph and the telephone are now firmly
established in China. She possesses thousands of
miles of telegraph lines, transmitting messages in Chinese.
Why these italics ? Because the invention of a system
by which Chinese can be telegraphed is a masterpiece
of ingenuity.* The difficulties seemed insuperable. How
could the Morse alphabet of dots and dashes reproduce
a language that has no alphabet at all, but possesses,
instead, a beautifully elaborated system of characters,
evolved from ancient hieroglyphics attributed, in their
primitive form, by the Chinese to Fuh-hi, their great,
and mythical, ruler of the early period of 2800 B.C., or
thereabout, and by Occidental learners to a much more
ancient celebrity with hoofs and horns characters that re-
present ideas, not sounds ? It stands to reason that an
ideographic system of writing must contain as many
characters as there are ideas, or conceptions, concrete or
abstract, that may have to be communicated in fact,
words so that the unfortunate telegraphists were con-
fronted by the evidently hopeless task of inventing com-
binations of dots and dashes equivalent to the three
thousand, or so, of characters a Chinese must be able to
distinguish before he can be said to be able to read fairly
well. There is, probably, no man living, nor ever was,
with a knowledge of all the characters of the Chinese
language, nearly forty-four thousand in number, although

* Due to the clever brain of Professor Schellerup, Professor of Astro-
nomy in the University of Copenhagen, the seat of the Great Northern
Telegraph Company's headquarters, who devoted his leisure hours to the
framing of his lucid scheme, which was perfected and tabulated for prac-
tical use, in 1871, by an equally clever Frenchman, Monsieur S. A. Viguier,
then Divisional Inspector at Shanghai in that admirable service, the
Imperial Chinese Maritime Customs.

A NEW TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. 191

some extremely learned Graduates may have enjoyed that
reputation.

A way out of the telegraphic difficulty suggests itself at
once to the Occidental mind. Why not telegraph Chinese
v.'ith the Morse signals corresponding to the Roman letters
lorming the representation, according to some definite
phonetic system, of the sound of the words ? This can-
not be done, because, in the first place, the Chinese
language being monosyllabic, every sound has numerous
significations, to be distinguished only by the context, or,
in some cases, by the particular intonation level, rising,
falling, guttural, or acute given to the syllable ; and,
secondly, because the vernacular varies so greatly in the
different provinces that a man from the coast of Fu-kien
is totally unable to converse with a fellow-countryman
from Shan-si, and even with a native of a province nearer
to his own, unless both happen to know the "Mandarin,"
or official, language, which implies high educational attain-
ments ; even then their pronunciation would differ con-
siderably. So entirely different are the provincial dialects
some of them attain to the dignity of separate languages
that I have heard a man from Canton and a native of
Tien-tsin conversing in Pidjtn-Eiiglish, the only possible
medium of communication between them, as, being men
of the artisan class, they did not speak "Mandarin," and
were acquainted with only a few of the most usual
characters, quite insufficient for their purpose. Had
they possessed a fair knowledge of writing, they could,
of course, have communicated freely on paper, just as
educated Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans can, as they
all use the Chinese ideograms, although not always with
exactly the same meaning, and placing the parts of speech
in a different order in the sentence, according to the
syntax of their entirely different languages. This entails a
considerable amount of trouble, the Chinese, for instance,
having to look for the verb at the end of a Japanese
sentence, much as we have to wade through half a page

192 THE NEW FAR EAST.

of German before we find the geworden sein soil, the
gehabt haben dilrfte, or other gruesome verbal combination,
that tells us what it is all about. In spite of this dif-
ficulty, the educated people of the three Far Eastern
Empires can, and do, communicate with one another in
writing, and read one another's books, provided they be
printed in the Chinese character. During the war, the
Japanese soldiers could always make the Chinese popula-
tion understand their requirements by tracing the more
commonly-known characters in the snow, or in sand,
with the point of the bayonet. When that novel Japanese
writing instrument traced the word "run" in the air, the
Chinese "Braves" understood it, in most cases, without a
moment's hesitation.

It is impossible to over-estimate the enormous advantage
over all Occidental nations that this possession of a common
written language not to speak of a classical literature fami-
liar to both gives the Japanese in all their dealings with
their neighbours, the Chinese and Koreans. Devoutly as it
might be desired that they should abandon their present,
diabolically complicated, system of writing or, rather,
systems, for they have three, with variations that causes
the youth of Japan to spend, in its acquisition, long years
which would suffice for learning three Occidental tongues,
and replace it by the Roman character, used phonetically,
as advocated by the Roma-ji-Kwai, or Roman Character
Society, of Tokio, there appears no prospect of such a
reform for many years to come. Japan is not likely to
give up the powerful lever she possesses for working on
the Chinese mind when the day will come for her to
resume her task, interrupted, for the nonce, but nowise
abandoned, of leading her tottering Celestial " Elder
Brother " along the path of reform she herself has so fear-
lessly followed.

In the meantime, their common written language is
of incalculable advantage to the people of Eastern Asia
in their international mercantile transactions. A Chinese

VOLAPUK OR CHINESE f 193

Graduate once said to me : " What is the use of this
Volapiik there is so much talk about ? " (He had met
with an enthusiastic European student of that short-lived
"Universal Language.") "Why don't you Western people
all learn to write Chinese ? If you all knew a certain sign,
two strokes " (all that remains of an archaic hieroglyphic
drawing of a man, just his striding legs,) "as the char-
acter for 'man,' you might pronounce it 'man,' homme,
Mann, uomo, hombre, homem, ember, miizh, barbatu,
according to your nationality, it would convey the same
idea to all the minds that had learnt it. Believe
me," he concluded, " Chinese is the only true Universal
Written Language."

One example will suffice to show the appalling diffi-
culties inherent to the problem of adapting the Morse
code to the intoned monosyllables of Chinese, and insep-
arable even from ordinary speech. Pao, as we would
spell it the Chinese " write " it by painting with the
writing-brush and what we call "Indian" ink because it
is not made in India, rubbed, with water, on a smooth
stone a little diagram, something like a gridiron attached
to a bird-cage Pao means, pronounced with the level
intonation, "treasure." A slight inflection of the voice,
which we can only render, quite arbitrarily, by an accent,
or an apostrophe, makes it sound Pao, written with quite
another little picture, and signifying "faggot, bundle of
sticks." Thus, when a Chinese happens to be suffering
from a violent cold in his head, the wife of his bosom
cannot make out if he is calling her his " treasure " or
his "bundle of sticks."

The problem of telegraphing in the Chinese language
has, however, been solved by a code of numerals corre-
sponding to nearly seven thousand carefully-selected
ideograms in every-day use. For instance, the ideogram
for "Cash" (Ch'ien), the word that most frequently
occurs to the Chinese mind, is expressed, in the Code
now in use, by the numerals 6030. In telegraphing, the
N

i 9 4 THE NEW FAR EAST.

operator merely sends the code signal along the wire. It is
translated at the receiving office at the other end into the
ideogram for " Cash." Of course, if the cardinal number
6030 is to be conveyed, the signals used would be the
three combinations of numerals fixed by the Code to
represent the words "six," "thousand," and "thirty."

It may be thought that proper names would not
readily lend themselves to transmission by this system
some of our English ones, Higginbotham or Satterthwaite,
for instance, certainly would not but in China there are
only one hundred surnames, said to have been originally
bestowed on the people by the great Fuh-hi, nearly three
thousand years B.C. It is characteristic of the thoroughly
Chinese spirit of this ruler, real or mythical, that his
avowed object in giving his subjects family names, or
rather "Clan names," was to facilitate their registration
for purposes of taxation. The Chinese to this day refer
to themselves as " the Hundred Names," as we would say :
"the People," "the Nation." And from this limited stock
every foreigner who holds communication with Chinese
must select a name by which they are to call him ; always
of course, a monosyllable, as like as possible to the radical
sound of his own surname. Thus Morrison becomes " Ma,"
Thompson is rendered " Tan," White becomes " Wei,"
Manson, " Man," Bale, " Pe."

In Japan, the difficulty was much more easily overcome
when the admirably-managed, cheap telegraph system that
now extends all over the Island Empire was commenced
in 1871. Amongst the bewildering variety of modes of
writing possessed by the Japanese, the Kana is phonetic.
Of the two kinds of Kana, the Kata-kana and Hiragana,
the latter, consisting of a syllabary, w T as framed by the cele-
brated Japanese Buddhist Saint Kobo Daishi (Abbot of Toji
in Kioto in A.D. 810, and called Kukai during his lifetime).
It is composed of forty-seven syllables, each expressed by
a cursive form of a Chinese ideogram. Unfortunately, the
Hiragana hardly ever used for whole books, except books

THE JAPANESE ABC. 195

for children, " Penny Novelettes " for women, and religious
or moral tracts for the lower orders, seldom, nowadays,
for letters, but always for the affixes denoting the cases
of nouns and the moods and tenses of verbs has become,
in the course of nearly eleven centuries, very complicated,
owing to the numerous abbreviated forms in which its
forty-seven signs may be written.

The Saint would hardly recognise his own syllabary
the Japanese ABC, which, being a Japanese, he drew up
poetically, in a stanza beginning: " Iro ha"* if he saw
it in some of its present forms. His soul would revolt
at them, for he was the most marvellous penman, or,
rather, "brush-man," that ever lived. He could write,
it is said, with five brushes at once ; one in each hand,
one grasped by the toes of each foot, and the fifth held
in his mouth. But, universal genius though he was, he
cannot be said to have been entirely original in his con-
ception of the Hiragana Syllabary, for, nearly half a
century before his time, the great scholar and statesman
Shimomichi-no Mabi, (or Kibo-no Makabi,) commonly
known as Kibi Dai-jin (died A.D. 776), invented, according
to tradition, a much simpler system, the Kata-kana, or
"Side-Characters," consisting of the forty-seven syllables
expressed by very easily-written signs which are only
sides, or parts, detached from Chinese ideograms. It is a
beautifully simple system, there, being only one form of
each of the forty-seven characters, with two kinds of
modifying marks for some ; unfortunately, the Japanese,
although they all know it, use it only for terminal affixes
and particles, and for the attempt chiefly far from suc-
cessful to render the phonetic value of foreign proper
nouns, and other foreign words. The impossibility of
doing this successfully becomes apparent when it is
stated that there is no true L-sound in Japanese, and,

* I, Ro, Ha, being the first three syllables in Kobo Daishi's metrical
table, are used, like our ABC, to indicate the whole syllabary. A Japanese
child "learns its Iro ha" as ours "learn their ABC."

196 THE NEW FAR EAST.

consequently, no sign to represent such a sound, just as
there is no true R-sound in Chinese. Curiously enough, the
Japanese attempt to pronounce our L results in an R-sound ;
they say "Rondon" for London, whereas the Chinese, in
trying to articulate a foreign word containing an R, pro-
nounce it as an L, and inform you quite calmly that their
staple food consists of " Zice." * A Japanese would re-
mark, conversely, that "Rice are very unpleasant insects."
The Koreans are as exasperating to the Occidental
student as the Japanese in their adherence to the Chinese
ideograms, instead of using generally the much simpler
phonetic character, called On-mun, they possess. Intro-
duced by Royal Edict in A.D. 1447, it consists of only
twenty-five letters, representing, not syllables, but eleven
vowels and fourteen consonants, constituting, therefore, a
real phonetic alphabet, and, moreover, a highly logical and
scientific one, with characteristic bases for each group of
letters, according to the sounds labials, dentals, palatals,
gutturals, and laryngeals. This remarkable alphabet, the
letters of which are easy to form, and pleasing to the
eye, is so beautifully simple that the wrong-headed Koreans
treat it with supreme contempt. It is considered so
ridiculously easy that no attempt is made to teach it.
Every Korean boy and girl is expected to learn it by his,
or her, own slight exertions. The numerous school-
masters, often Yang-ban, for tuition is the only occupa-
tion an impoverished Korean aristocrat can turn to for
a living, reserve their energies for teaching the abnormally
difficult Chinese ideographic writing. So the beautiful
alphabet is looked upon as common and vulgar ; the
Korean gentry, although they all know it, use it only
when writing what women (who use it habitually) and
the uneducated classes are to read. Hence its use,
mixed with the Chinese ideograms of common occurrence,
in Proclamations to the people.

* In the language of Peking there is a sound, exasperatingly difficult for
Occidentals to imitate, which is somewhat like "rlj."

"A FELT WANT." 197

Chinese ideograms, Japanese Hiragana and Kata-kana,
and Korean alphabetic characters, are all written, with the
same kind of brush, ink, and stone as implements, in
vertical columns from top to bottom, beginning at the
right hand top corner of the paper, so that a book in any
Far Eastern characters begins where our books end not
the only Far Eastern custom that appears topsy-turvy to
our eyes. From the phonetic nature of the Japanese
Kana and the Korean alphabet it may be inferred that the
introduction of telegraphy into those countries did not
encounter the linguistic obstacles that were, ultimately, so
ingeniously surmounted in the case of China. And now
China has telegraphs, and actually works them herself,
with pig-tailed operators all of the male sex, whereas in
Japan dear, demure, little musumt are, almost exclusively,
employed in the Telephone Exchanges.

China's adoption of telegraphy was, like all her moves
in the direction of progress, the result not so much
of a desire to confer benefits on the population, nor
even to enrich the national exchequer, as of the com-
pulsion of necessity. When, in 1879, the Chinese Special
Envoy, CHUNG How, instead of inducing the Russians to
evacuate the Chinese Territory of Hi, in the extreme
North- West where the Tsar's troops had occupied Kuldja
during the commotion caused by the establishment of
Yakub Beg's Kingdom of Kashgaria had signed the
humiliating Treaty of Livadia, the Regents at Peking had
become thoroughly alarmed at the want of means of rapid
communication that had placed the interests of China at
the mercy of an incompetent, some say a venal, Envoy,
placed beyond their control. Had they been aware of
the course of the "negotiations" by which CHUNG
How was bullied, or cajoled, or "persuaded" in the
manner so well understood by both parties to the Treaty,
into a surrender that bore all the appearances of a
betrayal, they would have broken off the pourparlers and
at once recalled their faithless, or inefficient, representative.

198 THE NEW FAR EAST.

But there was no telegraph station nearer to Peking
than Shanghai, where the enterprising Great Northern
Telegraph Company, a powerful international corpora-
tion principally Danish and Russian had surreptitiously
landed the shore end of their coast cable from Hong-
kong in the silent watches of a dark night in 1871. Had
the Mandarins noticed the operation, the usual opposi-
tion would have been encountered by the Company per-
mission had not been sought, as it would not have
been granted without years of wearisome negotiations and,
probably, more than one hard " squeeze " ; once the cable
was in full working order, and wealthy Chinese merchants
had been coaxed into using it, the authorities accepted the
accomplished fact, as they generally do.

When, at last, the Regents at Peking realised the
dangers they had incurred by the delay in communicating
with CHUNG How, they resolved to follow the advice oi
their famous Viceroy, the late General Tso Tsung-tang, a
really great Chinese, one of the same stamp as Admiral
Ting, and to adopt the mysterious invention of the Outer
Barbarians that would enable them to "talk over the
wires" with their Envoys in distant lands, to receive
instantaneous reports from all parts of the huge Empire,
and to flash orders to the great army in the far North-
West, the host that had, under Tso's leadership, anni-
hilated the Mohammedan Kingdom which Yakub Beg had
set up in Kashgaria. CHUNG How returned to China
in January, 1880, not without grave misgivings, for he
must have begun to reflect that his signing away to
Russia an important tract of Hi, with all the strategically
valuable passes in the Tien Shan mountains, the great
trading city of Yarkand, and an "indemnity" of five
million roubles thrown in, was not likely to strike the
Regents as a piece of brilliant diplomacy. It did not ;
the Regents repudiated him and his precious Treaty,
degraded him, and resolved to purify their Diplomatic
Service by decapitating him. CHUNG How was, however,

TELEGRAPHY, A CHINESE INVENTION. 199

reprieved and set free, an act of clemency that was
attributed, by Occidentals, to the intercession of the
Foreign Ministers in Peking. It is quite possible that it
was due to different causes, never to be known in the
West, and, perchance, not entirely unconnected with some
process of disgorging ill-gotten gains. Another famous
Chinese statesman, the late Marquis Tseng, went to St.
Petersburg and negotiated a fresh Treaty, ratified in
August, 1 88 1, that was almost as great a surprise to the
world as CHUNG How's, but in the opposite direction
it actually afforded the unusual spectacle of Russia giving
up something she had "acquired" 1 By its terms, Russia
returned nearly the whole of the Territory of Hi, including
Kuldja, to China, retaining only a strip on the western
frontier of the territory, and receiving from the Peking
Government an "indemnity" of nine millions of roubles
" in full satisfaction of all claims." Twice within seventeen
years, in Kuldja, in 1881, and in Korea, in 1898, Russia
has, in her admirable wisdom, given up what she had
gripped in her hand of iron retiring both times for
inscrutable reasons, but, we may be sure, always to her
ultimate benefit. There is an appropriate French idiom :
Redder pour mieux sauter.

The fear of war with Russia, that had seemed immi-
nent, passed away, but the resolve to introduce telegraphy,
which the peril .had induced, remained, and the land lines
were commenced in 1881, after the public mind had been
calmed by the assurance, on the part of several renowned
"Literati," that telegraphy was really only a revival, in
a highly-developed form, of an invention originating, like
all others, in the early days of Ancient China, when two
famous sages had held converse at a distance along a
stretched string. Now the lines extend unto the utmost
parts of the Empire, from north to south and from east
to west. A sign of real progress, truly, but slightly
diminished in its significance when we consider what sort
of Government Messages occasionally flash along the wires

200 THE NEW FAR EAST.

"On His Imperial Majesty's Service." That very modern
giant, Electricity, must wince when he is bidden to convey
a message from the Governor of a Province to Peking,
reporting that he has had a whole street pulled down
because a case of parricide had occurred in one of the
houses and, as every Chinese knows, there must have been
gross remissness on the part of the neighbours, who cannot
have exerted their influence to preserve a high moral tone
in the locality. The Governor asks, too, whether con-
sidering the heinous nature of the crime, the worst one
possible he shall have the city wall pulled down at one
corner, and a round bastion substituted for a square one
at the East Gate. How the wires must quiver when they
bear the intelligence from the Capital that a famous
Chinese Mohammedan rebel chieftain, who had long defied
the Imperial authority in the wilds of Kan-su, has paid the
penalty of his high treason considered in China as parri-
cide, revolt being construed into an attempt on the life
of the Emperor, who is the Father of his People, and,
like all Chinese fathers, "He who must be obeyed" and
transmit, in curt sentences, an account of his undergoing
the extreme punishment appointed by the law, the ling-chi,
or slow death by slicing, after the extermination by the
executioner's sword, in his presence, of his whole family,
including his grandfather, eighty years of age, his mother,
his wife, and his five children, the youngest ten months
old ! * Or, perhaps, the message that speeds along is from
His Excellency the Governor-General of the Two Kwang,
reporting a drought, and asking that chastisement be meted
out to him by the Board of Punishments, as the drought
was inflicting serious damage on the Provinces for which
he was responsible. Thus did Li Hung-chang, when

* In cases of forgery of important official documents (such as a Memorial
to the Throne, as on gth February, 1896) the punishment of the innocent
members of the culprit's family is tempered by clemency (!). The lives
of the sons under sixteen are spared, but they are turned into eunuchs,
and the daughters are sold into slavery, generally to brothels.

SOVEREIGN AND STATE. 201

reporting to the Throne, in the summer of 1888, on the
overflow of the Yung-ting River, that had caused fearful
damage in the Province of Chih-li, under his govern-
ment, propose that his subordinates who appear to
have manfully done their best to stem the flood and to
succour the inhabitants, even at the risk of their own
lives should be reduced in rank all round, and that his
own name should be submitted to the Board of Punish-
ments for the pronouncement of such sentence as might
be thought commensurate with his "crime." According
to Chinese ideas, any disaster, however unavoidable, is
held to be a mark of the unworthiness of those in power
not, as in mediaeval, and, in some circles, still in modern
Europe, as a " judgment " on a sinful community. The
Emperor himself, in numerous Proclamations, assumes his
share of the responsibility for national disasters, attri-
buting them to his own manifold shortcomings, imploring
the forgiveness of outraged Heaven, whose wrath has
been plainly manifested by flood, famine, or rebellion,
and promising to reform his conduct. The same notion
prevails in Korea, where the monarch, autocrat though
he be, makes public and abject confession of his unworthi-
ness whenever more than usually acute troubles arise in
that distressful country. Even in New Japan, the belief
in the intimate relation of the sovereign's personal worth
to the national prosperity, or misfortune, lingers in men's
minds, and, as this, originally Chinese, conception cuts
both ways, the masses attribute the glorious success of
the nation's enterprises, in peace and war, to the
resplendent virtues of their Emperor.

The official messages conveyed along the wires in
China are sometimes of a more cheering nature than
those of which I have given specimens. For instance, the
telegraph may be used to communicate the Imperial Edict,
just sealed with the Vermilion Seal, ordering certain local
authorities to erect a Memorial Arch in honour of the spirit
of the late Widow Chung, distinguished by her good deeds,

202 THE NEW PAR EAST.

and especially by the example of filial piety she gave, some
years ago, by cutting a slice off her thigh, and cooking it,
that it might be eaten by her mother-in-law, for whom
this diet had been prescribed by an eminent physician, as
a probable cure, provided the patient were kept in ignor-
ance of its nature, for an obstinate disease. Or the
Governor of An-hui may "wire" to Peking, as he did
in the spring of 1889, the gleeful intelligence that of the
competitors at the examination for literary degrees the
only path to official rank and civil employment held in
his Province, thirty-five were over eighty years old, and
eighteen over ninety. A life-time of being "ploughed"
could not daunt these indomitable old boys, whose
essays were reported to be "perfectly accurate in diction,
and the hand- writing firm and distinct." It is satisfactory
to know that those who could prove that sixty years
the real "Cycle of Cathay" had elapsed since they took
their Bachelor's Degree, and that they had been " plucked "
at the three last examinations for the higher step, -were
entitled, should they fail in this fourth attempt, to claim
an Honorary Degree. There used to be a doggerel verse
current at an English University, which proclaimed the
fact that :

" There was a man at Hall,

Who knew next to nothing at all.
He was forty-three
When he took his degree;
Which was young for Hall." .

Had he studied in An-hui, he might have "chummed"
with an Undergraduate of sixty-four a mere Freshman.
On the third of January, 1896, at early morn for
Majesty transacts its business betimes at Peking, confer-
ring with the Cabinet Ministers at 4, and even at 3, A.M. a
package labelled " Respectful Memorials from CH'EN Pao-
chen, Governor of Hu-nan," was opened in the " Pink For-
bidden Precincts." Within an hour some things are done
quickly in China a message was on its way, partly by tele-

THE "PEKING GAZETTE." 203

graph, partly by courier, to the Governor, informing him
that "on the package being opened, the usual Memorial
asking after the Imperial healths of Their Majesties the
Emperor, the Empress Dowager, and Empress, was absent,
which is a grave dereliction of etiquette," and that, " in
punishment thereof," he would be "handed to the Board
of Civil Appointments for the determination of an appro-
priate penalty." One wonders what the Board would
consider " appropriate " to " make the punishment fit the
crime," as Mr. W. S. Gilbert puts it. Perhaps "Some-
thing humorous and lingering, with boiling oil in it " ?

Lest it be thought that these instances of the very
Chinese nature of official acts in what is still Old China
might be looked upon as fanciful distortions of fact, I may
state that every one of them is to be found, amidst
hundreds of others of a similar character, recorded in the
cold, dry, official style of the Peking Gazette, that epitome
of all " things Chinese," the official journal of the Empire,
and the oldest periodical on earth. It has appeared daily
since the middle of the fourteenth century (although not
always under its present title, as Peking did not become
the Capital until the Emperor Ch'eng-tsu, of the Ming
dynasty, established his court there in A.D. 1421,) so that
the earlier back numbers are scarce. An excellent English
translation of this unique newspaper is now issued annu-
ally by the Shanghai North China Herald, as a reprint
of the abstracts from the Gazette that have appeared in
its columns during the year. Those who want to know
Chinese life in all its intricate detail, to study the extra-
ordinary medley of contradictions that constitutes the
character of the Chinese, and to marvel at the nature of
the Government, so nearly perfect in theory, so defective
in practice, that has, with all its faults, managed to
control three or four hundred millions of people for a
period longer by far than that covered by any other rule
in the history of the world should read the translation
of the Peking Gazette.

204 THE NEW FAR EAST.

They should study these unique annals, however,
by the light of some of the excellent books that have
been written, in popular style, by men who have devoted
their lives to the investigation of the Mystery of China.
Of the more recent works of this kind, Professor R. K.
Douglas's Society in China contains, for its size, an im-
mense amount of information ; Chinese Characteristics,
by the Reverend Arthur H. Smith, twenty-two years a
Missionary of the American Board in China, The Chinese,
their Present and Future : Medical, Political, and Social,
by Robert Coltman, Jr., M.D., formerly a Medical Mis-
sionary in Northern China, and The Real Chinaman, by
Chester Holcombe, for many years Interpreter, Secretary
of Legation, and Acting Minister of the United States at
Peking these are all veritable treasuries of Chinese lore.
The works by Smith, Coltman, and Holcombe are so
admirably written, sparkling with humour, and full of
good and true stories, that they may be thoroughly
enjoyed even by those who took no particular interest in
China before their perusal. It will be strange if they do
not become thus interested after reading these fascinating
books. When their appetite is once whetted, they will
relish the fare set before them in Stories of Everyday
Life in Modern China, "told by Chinese and done into
English by " T. Watters, late H.B.M. Consul at Foochow
(or, according to the new, and more scientific, ortho-
graphy : Fu-chau,) in A Corner of Cathay, " studies
from life among the Chinese," by Adele M. Fielde, an
American lady who resided for fifteen years in China,
chiefly at Swatow (or Swa-tau), in the south-eastern
corner of the Empire ; and in A String of Chinese
Peach-Stones, by W. Arthur Cornaby, who has strung
together a large number of vivid sketches of life and
character in Central China, presented in the form of a
story.

Thus the enquirer into the truth about China may
equip himself for his study of the Peking Gazette,

THE CHINESE VIEW OF RAILWAYS. 205

and become able to weigh judiciously the views as to the
great Chinese Problem propounded by many eminent
writers notably in China Present and Past, a collection
of valuable essays by R. S. Gundry, in Lord Curzon of
Kedleston's brilliant Problems of the Far East, in the
pregnant chapters of Colquhoim's China in Transformation,
in Valentine Chirol's amplification in book form, under the
title of Ihe Far Eastern Question, of his admirable letters
to the Times, and in the breezy pages of Pioneering in
Formosa, by W. A. Pickering, C.M.G. But no views as
to the future of China can be appreciated at their proper
value, no personal opinion can be rightly formed, unless
it be constantly borne in mind that the Chinese are
Chinese, not Occidentals, and that, consequently, our own
standards must be discarded in measuring their capacity
for national reform and regeneration. How very unlike
ourselves the Chinese are in their modes of thought, how
widely divergent from us in their way of considering
almost every subject, can, I think, be shown most clearly
by continuing to cite instances of recent occurrence which
go to prove that China is Old China still.

The public mind in Occidental countries seems to have
become imbued with the idea that China is yearning for
railways. No such feeling has entered into the Chinese
heart. It never yearns for any innovation from abroad.
There can be no doubt, however, that the attitude of
the official class towards the introduction of railways
throughout the Empire has undergone a very marked
change since 1887, when a Memorial proposing the con-
struction of an "experimental railway" from Ta-ku to
Tien-tsin was presented to the Empress Regent by the
Board of Admiralty (!) and led to the issue by Her Majesty
of an Imperial Edict formally sanctioning the scheme.
Sullen opposition and active interference have been
replaced by lively interest, and the great Mandarins lend
willing ears to the persistent representations of energetic
would-be concessionaires, whose pockets bulge with plans

206 THE NEW FAR EAST.

and estimates for lines from anywhere to everywhere
within the borders of the Flowery Land.

What is the cause of this welcome change of front ?
Have the ruling classes become penetrated by the con-
viction that the iron road will, as many Occidentals
maintain, prove to be China's salvation ? Are they, at
last, alive to the incalculable benefits to accrue to Chinese
commerce, to the development of the country's immense
resources, and especially of its almost untouched mineral
wealth, by the general introduction of railways ? Are they
now convinced of the prosperity it would bring to millions
of the people ? In the case of a few enlightened officials
the change of opinion has, undoubtedly, been brought
about by considerations of this nature, for, be it remem-
bered, there are Mandarins who are as capable of appre-
ciating the benefits of Western civilisation as are the
men of New Japan, but the number of such is lamentably
small and increasing but slowly. The great majority of
those officials who give their countenance to railway
projects do so either honestly, from a desire to see their
country provided with the greatest facilities for rapid trans-
port, not of produce, or minerals questions of economic
development do not, as a rule, engross their attention
nor of passengers in their opinion the existing facilities
for travel are sufficient but of troops and material of
war for the prompt repression of the ever-recurring insur-
rections and for the purpose, cherished secretly in their
hearts, of some day driving the hated "Foreign Devils"
from the sacred soil of China ; or they have been con-
verted to their present frame of mind by a reason potent
beyond all others with the average Mandarin ; they have
discovered railway enterprise to be a lucrative opportunity
of " Squeeze-P/rf/m." Even if the line be never con-
structed, the eager concession-hunter will have been well
"squeezed," an operation that affords not only profit, but
the delightful consciousness that the lucre is being extracted
from the pockets of the despised foreigner. Should the

CHINESE "COMMISSIONS." 207

construction be really undertaken, the opportunities for
further extortion, from natives as well as foreigners, are
unbounded. In the transfer of the necessary land, the
supply of materials obtained locally, and of labour, the
official "squeeze" can be applied in ways too numerous
to mention. Every contract and sub-contract will leave
a substantial percentage on the Mandarin's palm, and, far
from allaying its normal itching, will only increase the
craving for a repeated application. Once the railway is in
operation, new "squeezes" will be invented with astonish-
ing rapidity. From the plate-layer to the General Manager,
every servant, or official, of the line will have to pay
tribute to the Mandarin, either directly or, more probably,
through the numerous "suckers" of the Chinese official
octopus the Yamtn "Runners" and others of the
motley crew of parasites that cluster round every man
in authority in the "Middle Empire." It has been truly
said that the British Empire is "Entirely Supported by
Voluntary Contributions." The Empire of China may, with
equal justice, be said to derive its financial means of
existence from a system of illegal "commissions." The
normal taxation is so light that it cannot possibly satisfy
the calls of the Treasury, the revenue from the Maritime
Customs, the only honestly-administered source of income,
is hypothecated to the foreign creditors of the State, and
the amounts forwarded to Peking by the Viceroys and
Governors-General to fill up the permanent deficit, as well
as the sums requisite for the administration of the Eighteen
Provinces and the Territories, must needs be produced by
other means.

What those means may be is left to the discretion of
the wretchedly underpaid officials a Viceroy, governing
territories as large as, and far more populous than, France,
receives, as yearly salary and "Anti-extortion Allowance,"
not more than six thousand pounds sterling and the
result may be easily imagined. The British race, with that
admirable common-sense that still distinguishes it in private

2o8 THE NEW FAR EAST.

matters, although it seems, unfortunately, to have occasion-
ally deserted it in affairs of State, long ago recognised the
great truth that to pay a man well is the surest way to
keep him honest. China is oblivious of this great principle.
So is Korea, and even in Japan, whose administration is, in
many respects, a model worthy of imitation, the salaries,
especially in the judicial branch, might be raised with
great advantage to the efficiency of the public service.
In China, the Mandarin robs unblushingly right and
left, because, unless he have considerable private means,
he is obliged to ; and the necessity for theft in-
creases as the lower grades ot officials and hangers-on
are reached, who are dependent on their "pickings" for
a living. "We must live," plead the peccant petty
Mandarin, his Clerk, the " Precedent-Searcher " who hangs
about round the Yamen, and assists litigants with his
knowledge of ancient cases (he is the Chinese substitute
for our Solicitor, and leaves "the daughter of the horse-
leech" far behind in unsatisfied greed), the Constable, and
the hundred and one rapacious underlings who form a
disreputable body-guard to the thief on a grand scale
who sits enthroned in the Yamen. " We must live," is the
cry of all of them. One feels tempted to reply, as the
French judge did to the thief's similar plea : "Je rien vois
pas la ntcessite."

Truly, the lowest depths of official corruption and
extortion appear to have been reached in China, although
there are, as there must always be, some bright exceptions
to prove the rule a few officials as honest and as zealous
as any in the world. But the majority are dishonest, in-
efficient and cruelly extortionate, the only limit to their,
exactions being the twofold fear of having to share too
palpable booty with a superior whose cupidity might be
attracted by its magnitude, and of pushing the people to
the verge of insurrection, a sacred right even the marvel-
lously patient Chinese resort to when too harshly oppressed.
And the occurrence of riots, or of the more passive resistance

"SURTOUT POINT DE BOBBERY/" 209

frequently adopted, in the shape of a general strike on
the part of the aggrieved shopkeepers, or craftsmen, leads
to notice being taken at Peking and to an enquiry being
ordered. The enquiry is duly held, with all the show ol
absolute impartiality peculiar to the theoretically perfect
form of paternal government. Fathoms of " Yellow Tape "
are unwound, yards and yards of thin paper are covered
with ideograms, and, nine times out of ten, the offending
Mandarin is reported to the Throne as being guilty. His
punishment depends greatly upon the degree of safety
with which the Government may disregard popular feeling
in that particular district. If it may safely be appeased by
merely transferring the guilty Mandarin to another locality,
that is all the punishment that will be officially meted out
to him, with a warning as to his future conduct. This he
generally receives with a genuinely contrite mien, as he
thinks of the large sum he has had to part with to the
powers that be in order to secure the lenient sentence.

If, on the contrary, the district be a turbulent one,
and likely to give serious trouble one, for instance, with
a large proportion of Chinese Mohammedans, sturdy and
independent, in its population; or, if the district be situated
in Southern China, one with a large number of those hulk-
ing, ill-conditioned, rough fellows, with pigtails thick as
stout ropes coiled round their villainous heads, who live
from hand to mouth by odd jobs and questionable expe-
dients, and, when they emigrate to the Straits Settlements,
become the Samseng, the loafers and bullies who are the
terror of Singapore, then the high authorities will make
the Mandarin suffer severely for his misdeeds. In such
cases, even his ill-gotten wealth may be powerless to save
him from degradation and dismissal, for his superiors are
determined in their purpose to make a severe example
of an official who robs so clumsily and so greedily as to
provoke what the Pidj in-English tongue aptly describes as
"too muchee bobbery." *

* Bobbery, trouble, commotion, disorder, row, fuss.
O

210 THE NEW FAR EAST.

That is the first principle of Chinese administrative
science : No " bobbery." The Province that has no his-
tory is the happy land; the Viceroy who is but seldom
heard of is persona gratissima within the " Pink Forbidden
City." The chief aim of that greatest of all Chinese, KONG
Fu-sze, whom Occidentals have Latinised into " Confucius,"
appears to have been the regulation of public and private
life in all their phases, so that the existence of every
human being, as a duly-subordinated link in an end-
less chain of mutual responsibility, might run smoothly
without any " bobbery." Not a very high ideal, perhaps,
and savouring more of a set of "Rules and Regulations"
than of the moral and social code to be expected from
one of the world's greatest leaders of thought, but these
rules, such as they are, some of them trite, some admir-
able, all of them severely practical in purpose, have served
to keep hundreds of millions of men together as a nation,
with a highly-developed civilisation of a peculiar sort, for
the space of two thousand and four hundred years, keep
them together to this day, and will continue to do so for
generations to come. Whatever flag may wave over
Peking, the Chinese will continue to be governed by the
rules of life laid down by Confucius, but having their
origin in racial characteristics that existed ages before his
birth in 551 B.C.

Confucius himself plainly intimated that his guiding
principles were not original. He called himself a " Trans-
mitter" and claimed no more than the glory of being the
wise man par excellence, sapient with the accumulated
wisdom of past generations, and striving to reconstitute,
by the help of his study of ancient records, the state ol
idyllic happiness that is said to have prevailed in the days
of Yao and of Shun, monarchs of the mythical, or semi-
mythical, period, some two thousand three hundred years
B.C. He taught that man, originally good, could, by strict
adherence to the ancient rules of conduct he professed to
revive, attain to the perfection, and consequent happiness,

A POLICE CODE AND A RELIGION. 211

of the people of that Golden Age. There is no doubt
that the Sage, himself a typical Chinese, knew his country-
men thoroughly, and framed for them a rule of life he
knew to be suited to their racial peculiarities. Hence the
extraordinary sway his teaching has exercised since his
death, in 479 B.C., over the minds of the Chinese. Surely,
the memory of no man, not even of Mohammed, is
venerated by so many millions at the present time, and
this veneration of Confucius had existed for a thousand
years when Mohammed preached Islam. The secret of
the vitality of the Confucian system of social order it is
more a Police Code than a Philosophy ; it is certainly
not a Religion lies in the fact, pointed out above, of its
being thoroughly Chinese and based on the traditions of
remote antiquity. Very Chinese and very old these are
recommendations that outweigh all others in the Chinese
mind.

I have stated that Confucianism is not a Religion. Of
the two creeds that overlap each other in China, the
people following the practices of either, or both, as the
occasion prompts them Taoism was based by Lao-tze, a
contemporary of Confucius, but his senior, on the Brah-
minical Philosophy of India but has degenerated into a
confused farrago of addled metaphysics and of grotesque
magic rites ; Buddhism, which was a real Religion when
it was established in China, coming from India, in the first
century after Christ, has also degenerated. In contact
with the matter-of-fact Chinese mind, it has lost the
element of faith, and has sunk from its original purity,
its noble simplicity, its sweet spirit of universal love and
charity, so nearly akin to the original precepts of Chris-
tianity, to its present degraded condition, stifled by
elaborate ritual, overgrown with gross superstitions, de-
based by the low moral tone of the majority of its
priesthood. Neither Taoism nor Buddhism could flourish
in their pristine purity in China, because neither was
founded on Chinese lines. That extraordinary racial

212 THE NEW PAR EAST.

vitality, that changeless spirit of firm adherence to
national peculiarities, that marvellous imperviousness to
outer influences, that have enabled the Chinese to assimi-
late, one after another, the alien nations that conquered
them, as they assimilated their present Manchu rulers till
no outward trace of their origin is left, also enabled them
to modify the religious systems imported from abroad.
Buddhism attempted to convert the Chinese, and the
Chinese converted Buddhism. If Christianity ever obtains
a firm hold in China, it will be by adapting itself to the
Chinese mind, at present antagonistic. This truth was
recognised, in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth
centuries, by those wonderful Jesuit Missionaries who
gained the favour of the great Emperor K'ang-hi ; it is
acknowledged to-day by the most enlightened Missionaries
of all denominations who know China. Once Christianity
has taken firm root amongst the "Hundred Names," a
native pastorate will become a necessity. The foreign
teachers will have to go, and then we may expect strange
developments. It is quite certain that Christianity in its
Occidental form will never commend itself to the bulk
of the Chinese race. A Chinese form, evolved by the
Chinese themselves from the broad principles inculcated
by the foreign Missionaries, may prove the salvation of
China. At all events, whatever may be the form of
religion adopted by a reformed China if there be ever
a reformed China seeking for any religion at all it will
be a Chinese form on Chinese lines. In the meantime,
Confucianism holds sway as the moral system that checks
the vices of the average Chinese and encourages them to
virtue.

The teachings of Confucius, the works of his commen-
tators, the ancient classics imbued with his spirit, the
much more ancient classics that inspired him, these still
constitute the educational equipment of the Chinese
Graduate. Efforts have been made, indeed, to introduce
Occidental sciences, notably mathematics, as optional

MODERN EDUCATION IN CHINA. 213

V

subjects in the great Competitive Examinations, but
hitherto with scant success. There are Colleges, it is true,
few and far between, at which the students are put
through a complete Occidental curriculum under foreign
teachers ; at Peking, steps were even being taken, early in
1898, to found a University on the Occidental plan, and the
diplomatic representatives of foreign states, including Italy
and the Netherlands, immediately claimed Professorships for
their compatriots, thus keeping up the tradition that every
one of the slight indications of a progressive movement on
the part of China is to be the signal for an undignified game
of grab by the Western countries each one for itself, and
the Tsung-li Yamen take the hindmost with the result,
usually, that the contemplated step forward is never taken,
China being unable to satisfy all the contending nations,
and afraid to offend some by favouring others.

Small as are the beginnings of Occidental education in
China, they have already borne good fruit, thanks to the zeal
of the foreign teachers, and to the marvellous perseverance,
the natural abilities, and the extraordinary memory of the
students (there are many Chinese scholars who can
recite a bulky classic by heart). But the point that
demands attention is that, in establishing a University,
Colleges, and special Schools for the Navy and the Army,
and so forth, the Imperial Government, and the various
Viceroys who have established these institutions inde-
pendently, without any plan of co-ordination, have not
in view the general raising of a standard of useful know-
ledge throughout the Empire. Their purpose and it
applies also to their sending students to Europe and
to America is merely to ensure a supply of technically
trained officers for their modern navy and the " foreign-
drilled " portion of their land forces, linguists for employ-
ment as interpreters and translators in the Tsung-li
Yamen's continual negotiations with foreign Powers,
engineers for their arsenals, and Secretaries and Attaches
for their diplomatic service. The men who fill the

2i 4 THE NEW FAR EAST.

highest offices of the State, and direct its policy, have
not enjoyed the benefits of an Occidental education. The
great Li Hung-chang himself, in spite of what he learned
on his long journey, would be quite unable to pass the
Sixth Standard of a Board School, even were ; the examina-
tion conducted in Chinese.

It is too readily assumed in the West that the aged
Chinese statesman's " grand tour " of the principal capitals
must needs have convinced him of the superlative excel-
lence of our civilisation. He had long ago recognised the
great importance to his country of a reform, on Occi-
dental scientific principles, of her defensive forces ; he
even contemplated taking the offensive against Japan as
soon as the navy and the army he had created could be
trained by the foreign Instructors in his pay to a degree
of efficiency ensuring, in his opinion, a certainty of suc-
cess. I have already referred, in the First Chapter, to
his schemes to this end. Li Hung-chang had also re-
solved, long before his journey, on calling in the aid 01
steam and electricity for the development of the re-
sources of the Provinces under his rule, more especially
of those portions constituting his own private estates. He
had introduced Occidental expert assistance and modern
scientific appliances with this end in view, and to these
far-seeing measures he owes, no doubt, to a great extent,
the very flourishing state of his exchequer, his private for-
tune being estimated at various immense sums, expressed
in millions of pounds sterling. He had likewise established
Colleges where young men might be trained in Western
knowledge so as to become efficient assistants to carry
out his plans. Even the medical science of the Occident
found in him a generous patron, for he understood the im-
portance of skilful physicians and well-ordered hospitals in
preserving the lives and the health of the people who
were helping him to make his Provinces prosperous, and
himself enormously wealthy.

But as for a recognition of the principles under-

LI HUNG - CHANG. 215

lying the strength and prosperity of the West, that
was, probably, as far from his mind on his return to his
Yamen at Tien-tsin as when he left China to represent
the Son of Heaven at the Coronation Ceremonies at
Moscow. Need we wonder if the impression he brought
back was not very flattering to our estimation of the
moral results of our vaunted civilisation ? At every capi-
tal he visited, he found elaborate preparations to impress
him with the paramount importance of that particular
country. The German Emperor, with that instinct for
stage-management and effect that aroused the envy of the
late Sir Augustus Harris, received him seated on his
throne, with stern, impassive mien, a sword laid across
his knees a truly impressive type of Imperial Majesty,
armed and omnipotent. Li understood it all ; it was so
like Peking and the Dragon Throne in the Pink For-
bidden Precincts. But it was when he came into contact
with the representatives of our great industries, of our
commerce and finance, that the narrow eyes began to
twinkle. Those who had the best opportunities of watch-
ing him closely during his visit to the manufacturing and
commercial centres must have been struck not only by
his pleasing geniality of manner, so unlike the pomposity
usual in the Mandarin, but by the instructive expression
of his face as he listened to the many addresses of wel-
come, the numerous toasts in his honour, all duly trans-
lated for his benefit by his skilful interpreters. I stood
by his side at his reception by the President and Council
of the London Chamber of Commerce in the magnificent
Hall of the Fishmongers' Company, and I scrutinised
his striking features intently as he listened to the trans-
lation of the various speeches addressed to him. I shall
never forget the contemptuous expression that came over
his face, the slight movement of the shoulders of the
towering figure, and, above all, the amused, cynical twinkle
in the almond eyes behind the great spectacles, as he
heard the assurances of " the warm sympathy with his

216 THE NEW PAR EAST.

ancient country, " the profound respect " for himself 01
those who lavished fulsome praise on an Empire they
considered rotten, and on a man whose chief importance
in their eyes lay in his presumed willingness to give away
large contracts. Then he was "the enlightened statesman
who was guiding his great country's destiny towards a
splendid future," but he knew full well that, once he had
departed, and with him the hope of contracts and con-
cessions, he would be "the rapacious old intriguer who
hoodwinked Europe and America." What a dance he
led those effusive old gentlemen, in resplendent white
waistcoats and with hats of superlative glossiness, who
swarmed round him from morning till night, explaining
the hundred and one inventions, every one of which was
sufficient in itself to regenerate the whole of China. He
listened and smiled, and the " free samples " of heavy
castings for steam-engines, of bayonets, bicycles, and
torpedos, of sewing-machines and patent harness-paste, of
steel rails and lawn-mowers, and all the other indispens-
able adjuncts to the regeneration of a great nation,
accumulated at his door, and were shipped to Tien-tsin,
together with reams of railway projects and financial
schemes, and hundredweights of " improving literature."
But the tall old man continued to smile, and smile, and
bowed 'himself out of the country, and fierce envy filled
the heart of every would-be regenerator, because he knew
someone else must have got that contract, for he had
not. Then the regenerators compared notes and they
found that not one of them had got any contract at all,
no not even those who had caused champagne to flow
like water and had wasted their substance on flags and
triumphal arches, decked with paper roses, in grimy manu-
facturing towns. And they waxed wroth, so that a
battalion of them would easily have stormed the great
Island Fort at Wei-hai-wei, had not the Japanese long
previously hoisted their flag on it.

Those who believe that China is ripe for reform often

RIVAL CREEDS. 217

allege that the strenuous efforts of devoted Missionaries
of various denominations, working for years amongst the
people in every part of the Empire, must have prepared
the way for the proximate regeneration of the Chinese
race on a Christian basis. Here I approach delicate
ground, for those who best know China are divided in
their opinion on the whole subject of Missionary efforts
in Far Cathay. I shall at once please many, I feel sure,
by declaring my firm belief that the Missionaries, both
Roman Catholics and Protestants of all denominations,
have done a vast amount of good in the Far East, and
especially in China, the greatest share being, undoubtedly,
due to those who have adopted educational or medical
work particularly the latter as their sphere of action.
But I must be strictly impartial, and I am compelled to
add that the sum total of the results achieved is but a
drop in the Chinese ocean. Insignificant as these results
are, compared with the enormous population, they have
been obtained only at the cost of many precious lives,
and of an amount of devotion and energy, and an ex-
penditure of money, that ought, if properly directed, to
have achieved a far greater measure of success.

The prime cause is to be found in the lamentable
rivalry existing between the three great branches of Chris-
tianity, Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and Protestant,
and between the denominations, too numerous to mention,
into which Protestantism is split up. Hence a frittering
of resources, an overlapping of spheres of activity, and
worse still a pernicious effect on the minds of those
whose conversion is to be attempted. Those who do not
scoff at the sorry spectacle of the dissensions between
the Missionaries of the different denominations, each
recommending his own way as the only safe road to
Salvation dissensions fortunately now less violent than
in the past are bewildered by the multiplicity of spiritual
guides. On several occasions, when I have asked some
highly-educated Oriental, trained in Western knowledge

2i 8 THE NEW FAR EAST.

and, apparently, in every respect capable of seeing eye to
eye with Occidentals, why he did not embrace Chris-
tianity, he has answered : " What sort of Christianity ? "
And there has been an ironical tone in the apparently
innocent words.

Even with the disadvantage of- scattered and disunited
forces, Christianity might have made greater headway in the
Far East had not its modern preachers begun their labours
at the wrong end. In China, governed by an omnipotent
literary bureaucracy, absolutely uninfluenced by any
spiritual movement among the masses, the Missionaries
have, in the nineteenth century, devoted their attention
almost exclusively to the lower social strata. A few of
the more enlightened ones notably the Reverend Dr.
W. A. P. Martin, the American President of the Imperial
Tung- Wen College at Peking, the Reverend Dr. A. William-
son, and the Reverend Gilbert Reid, M.A., an American
of Scottish descent long since recognised the fallacy of
this method, and advocated an entirely opposite course.
The late Sir Thomas Wade, for many years Her Britannic
Majesty's representative in China, strongly supported the
view that any important change in the attitude of the
Chinese towards Christianity must proceed from the upper
classes. The history of the successful introduction of alien
creeds into Far Eastern countries teaches the same lesson.
When Buddhism entered into China, from India, for the
second time, in A.D. 61 on the first occasion, in 219 B.C.,
its Missionaries were unsuccessful when it was first intro-
duced, in A.D. 552, from China, through Korea, into Japan,
it made its first appearance at court, not amongst the
people. It was by Special Ambassadors whom the Em-
peror Ming-ti, of the Later Han Dynasty, had sent
abroad to make enquiry into the existence and powers of
the mighty spirit "Fo" as the Buddha is called in
Chinese that the Indian religion was brought to China,
where it spread with amazing rapidity under the powerful
patronage of the Sovereign. The Indian priests, who had

THE INTRODUCTION OF BHUDDISM. 210

accompanied the Ambassadors on their return to China,
had a hard struggle against the scepticism of the Literati
Confucianists to a man, then as now but the Emperor
had adopted the new faith, and that was enough ; the
bulk of the people followed suit. Similarly, in Japan, the
first tangible evidences of Buddhism a golden image of
Buddha and some scrolls of the sacred writings came to
the Emperor Kimmei as presents from the King of
Kakusai, one of the states into which Korea was divided.
The Ambassador who brought these gifts spoke so elo-
quently in favour of the new religion that the Emperor
was inclined to adopt it, but the majority of his Coun-
cillors were opposed to it, fearing that the truly national
gods, the Kami of the Shin-to cult, would object to the
foreign intruder, however highly recommended. The Prime
Minister, SOGA-NO Iname*, alone favoured the adoption of
the new creed by the Emperor, who, in his perplexity,
took a course not unusual with those who receive an
embarrassing present he passed on the golden image to
someone else, in this case to the Prime Minister, who
was ordered to make a trial of the new god. SOGA-NO
Iname* accordingly made his country house into a temple
for the Golden Buddha. This seemed to displease the
Shin-to deities, who felt that the moment had come to
discredit their alien rival, the Buddha who was enshrined,
so to say, "on approbation," and they caused a pestilent
fever to devastate the land. The conservative majority
in the Council at once pointed to the golden image as the
prime cause of the epidemic. It was promptly hurled
into the sea by the command of the indignant Emperor,
and its temple was razed to the ground, which seems
rather hard on the Prime Minister, whose country house
it was. The new faith was not going to allow itself to
be so easily disposed of, and it sent such a succession of
calamities to punish Japan for its inhospitable treatment
that the Shin-to gods' pestilence seemed but a minor
temporary inconvenience in comparison. Straightway the

220 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Emperor repented ; a new temple was erected, the golden
Buddha was miraculously recovered from the sea (not,
however, by a diver, like the golden dolphin of Nagoya
Castle, mentioned in the last Chapter,) and the country
was at rest. * The Emperor Kimmei's successors favoured
the new religion ; the great nobles followed the Imperial
example, and as always in the East the masses moved
with a common impulse in the wake of their rulers.

Buddhism, the faith that counts the vast majority of
Far Eastern people amongst its adherents in Korea alone
has it lost ground within the last five centuries, being there
little more than a shadow of its former glory was thus
introduced into both China and Japan under Imperial
patronage. It permeated the whole social fabric from
above ; there seems but little hope of any religion spread-
ing through the nations of the Far East from below. The
first European Missionaries who landed on the shores or
China and of Japan, the fearless pioneers from Portugal
and, later, from Spain, seem to have judged the situation
aright from the very first. They wasted no time, but
proceeded straight to the fountain-head of local authority
in Japan the court of the feudal Prince, in China, the
Yamn of the most important Mandarin and ingratiated
themselves with the highest in the land. The Jesuits
Frenchmen and others of various European nationalities
established themselves in the Palace at Peking, erecting
their church within its pink ramparts, and became the
trusted high officials and intimate friends of at least three
of China's greatest Manchu Emperors. In China, as in
Japan, Christianity, introduced under such high auspices,
flourished, for a time, to a remarkable degree, numbering
its churches by hundreds, and its adherents by hundreds

* The miraculous image is preserved to this day in the great Temple of
Tennoji at Osaka. Sad to relate, it has been found to consist only
of gilded copper. Like most relics, it has a rival, a group of three figures
of real gold in the Temple of Zenkoji, at Nagano, also claiming to be the
original present of the Korean King to the Emperor Kimmei,

LESSONS PROM HISTORY. 221

of thousands. But for the internecine quarrels of the
various religious orders, the intrigues carried on against
one another by the different Roman Catholic nationalities,
and against all of them by the Dutch nominally staunch
Protestants in those days, but, in the East, really serving
the great god Mammon alone and, above all, the mis-
guided interference of a meddlesome Papal Legate, the
whole of the Far East might now be Christian. The
mission of that Papal Legate, sent to settle a controversy
between the learned and practical Jesuits and the perfervid,
narrow-minded Dominicans, was fatal to the churches in
China. It convinced the great and enlightened Emperor
K'ang-hi, who had issued, in 1692, an Edict of Tolerance
that was one of the noblest to which a Chinese ruler had
ever affixed the Vermilion Seal, that behind the wonderful
men from the West who devoted their blameless lives to
the service of their God, and their extraordinary talents
and profound knowledge to the service of the Emperor,
without any thought of personal profit there was a
mysterious foreign Power actively controlling the millions
of all races who entered the fold of the Church. From
that moment, Christianity lost its footing at the Court ol
Peking as it had lost it in Japan, and the terrible persecu-
tions began which succeeded, after long years of heroic
resistance on the part of the European pastors and their
native flock, in almost obliterating the traces of the glorious
work achieved by a band of men as steadfast, as brave,
wise and accomplished as ever sallied forth, with their
lives in their hands, to do battle for the Cross.

Untaught by these lessons of history, the modern
Missionaries devote themselves, almost invariably, to the
conversion of the lower classes. To appreciate the futility
of this proceeding, we have only to imagine Britain
governed absolutely by an administration composed ol
Newdigate Prizemen, men who have graduated high in
Classical Honours, and Senior Wranglers. What would we
think of the wisdom of Buddhists who, wishing to convert

222 THE NEW PAR EAST.

the whole of the British Empire to their faith, commencea
operations with a mission to the costermongers in Golden
Lane and Newport Market, and to the inmates of the
Salvation Army's " Shelters " ? That is, broadly indicated,
the position of Missionary enterprise in the Far East.
The reason for it is not unconnected with the fact of the
greater ease with which the poorer classes may be brought
within the fold. Christianity, the religion of consolation
and sympathy, appeals directly to the suffering poor,
with its comforting promise of a better hereafter for those
whose bitter lot in this world is almost beyond human
endurance. The poor in China lead lives of such unremit-
ting bitter toil, working from dawn till long after dusk,
and barely escaping from starvation, that it is surprising
more of them do not flock to hear the Glad Tidings, as
the negroes used to in the days of slavery in America.
As it is, the majority of the converts are people in humble
life, their number increasing rather suspiciously in the
times of the ever-recurrent famines, when the Missionaries
work hard in the distribution of relief. Unfortunately
for the progress of Christianity in China, the very fact that
it is there, more than anywhere else, the religion of the
lowly and the oppressed, attracts to the Chapel a crowd
of wastrels and social wrecks, who requiring, as they do,
the consolations of the faith more urgently than their
prosperous brethren yet do great harm to the Missionary
cause. If dishonest, and they are often sad impostors,
making a trade of their conversion/ they bring discredit

* I knew a Chinese from Canton who tramped all over England, in
Chinese dress, and fared sumptuously and gratuitously merely by sitting by
the roadside near the gates of Vicarages and Rectories, poring over a copy
of the Gospels in Chinese. The following colloquy invariably ensued:
Vicar,'' or Rector: "What are you reading?" A-Hu: Belong Bible Book.
My catchee inside Blitish-Foleign Bible House, London-side. Belong
Numba-One first-chop Book, allosame some part velly hard makee believe ! "
The good Cleric at once undertook to remove the obstacles obscuring A-Hu's
comprehension of difficult points of dogma, a process necessitating restora-
tion of the wayfarer's exhausted frame, and extending in some cases over a
fortnight. I would be afraid to say how often A-Hu had been " converted,"

THE CHINESE VIEW OF MISSIONARIES. 223

on the Missionaries and make them ridiculous in the
eyes of the Chinese ; if honest, their sad plight, and the
low social status to which they have fallen, make their
better situated countrymen hesitate to join the same
congregation. The Chinese authorities are continually
complaining that every Mission-house becomes a veritable
Alsatia for all the vagrom men and shiftless fellows of the
neighbourhood. This complaint is exaggerated, no doubt,
but there is a substratum of truth. In short, Christianity
in China is not " fashionable " ; it is not even considered
"respectable," and that is a grave drawback to its success
with a nation that prizes respectability "face," as it calls
it above all things. I will not dwell on the actual
mischief wrought by the excessive zeal, or the narrowness
of mind, of some few Missionaries ; by the imperfect
linguistic knowledge of others, leading to absurd and
irreverent expressions used, by the misplacing of an in-
tonation, where solemn words were intended ; by the
insufficient acquaintance of novices with Chinese manners,
customs and thought ; and, lastly, by the dictatorial inter-
ference of Missionary Societies and Boards at home totally
ignorant of Chinese conditions. These faults have caused
the loss of many lives ; they have brought " the inevitable
gun-boat " into play, and have caused millions of Chinese
to look upon Christianity, and Western civilisation, with
scorn and loathing.

What, then, is the course to be pursued in order to
introduce the religion of Peace and Good-will into China
so that it shall reach all classes and be permanent in its
effects ? To this end we must send out men as devoted,
as fearless, as energetic, as those who now labour in
China, but, if possible, still more highly trained for their
duties, and, above all, entirely free from bigotry. Let us
have no men amongst them capable of recording, as the
Reverend George Leslie MacKay, D.D., a Canadian Scot,

but he certainly had a capacity for raising knotty points equalled only by
Bishop Colenso's Zulu, or the late David Friedrich Strauss.

224 THE NEW FAR EAST.

has done in his interesting book From Far Formosa :
the Island, its People, and Missions, that in Pe-po-hoan
villages, on the Kap-tsu-lan Plain, he " more than once "
dried his rain-soaked clothes "before fires made of idol-
atrous paper, idols and ancestral tablets." Let such care-
fully-selected men as I have indicated go out to live
blameless, charitable, helpful lives amongst the Chinese
people, carefully observing, in their behaviour, every rule
of native propriety and etiquette. Let them, besides the
mute, but telling, example of their good, pure lives, afford
the Chinese gratuitous instruction ; to the upper classes
let them teach European languages, and the Occidental
sciences, to the middle and lower classes the rudiments of
practical Western knowledge, such as are imparted in
our elementary schools. Let them minister to the ail-
ments of all, and inculcate sanitary reforms. Especially
let them lecture, with magic-lantern views, about distant
parts of the Chinese Empire the ignorance of the natives
in this respect is profound ; the majority, although often
calling their country " the Eighteen Provinces," are unable
to name more than three or four and about foreign
lands. Let them teach the farmer and the craftsman
the use of tools more efficient than their rudimentary
appliances, unchanged for many centuries. Let them teach
the Chinese how to make their labour more productive
and more remunerative ; in the country where every
third word one hears is Chi' en ("Cash,") that considera-
tion will carry great weight. Let them lead the Chinese
to think of the great Outer World, at present a blank
to them, and tell them under what conditions its inhabi-
tants live. To do all this they must, of course, become,
as other Missionaries do, proficient in the language. But,
above all, let them never utter a word about Religion
unless they be asked ; let them never allow a word to
escape them deriding the creeds of the Chinese, the cult
of their Sage, Confucius, the system of their family life
far more sacred to them than any religious tenets nor

"SECULAR" MISSIONARIES. 225

the worship of their ancestors. The two last the family
system and the ancestral cult form the keystone of the
Chinese social fabric. Who shakes them, makes China
totter to her very foundations ; who shatters them, brings
down the whole edifice of four thousand years and
buries three hundred millions of human beings under its
ruins.

But, it will be objected, how will the labours of these
purely "Secular" Missionaries effect the spiritual regener-
ation of the Chinese race ? When the Chinese begin to
realise the advantages of Occidental civilisation in its
material aspects, their sharp minds will soon begin to
enquire into the conditions of government under which
this civilisation has reached its actual development, and
they will strive for a purer administration and more even-
handed justice in their own Empire. These once obtained,
they will further enquire into the moral system that
governs life in civilised nations, the spirit that animates
their social institutions and the phenomena we have wit-
nessed in Japan will be repeated in China. Ever since
the Great Change in 1868, the Japanese have been adapt-
ing to their requirements, with miraculous energy and
skill, the best fruits of the material civilisation of the
Occident. To its animating spirit, Christianity, they have
remained, practically, impervious. For thirty years of
feverish activit) r , they have answered the Missionaries'
urgent plea in these words : " We are too busy just now
to think about religion. We have so many, and such
difficult, things to learn ; all about steam, electricity, and
chemistry; all about medicine and surgery, and mining,
and railways, and ship-building, and finance ; all about
constitutional law, and parliamentary government, and
political economy. All that it took you several centuries
to build up, we have to learn, and adapt to our wants
and our means, in thirty short years. When we have ac-
quired all these things, and we know how to use them,
then we will think of religion. We are now in the
p

22 6 THE NEW FAR EAST,

position of starving men, hungering for the bread of
science, thirsting for the water of practical knowledge.
When we have eaten and drunk our fill, then we will
willingly investigate this religion you recommend to
us."

And now that the Japanese have satisfied the cravings
of their hunger for science, now that they have slaked
their thirst for practical knowledge, their wisest minds are
beginning to enquire into less earthly matters. Week after
week, month after month, they discuss, in the reviews
and magazines that abound in New Japan, the question of
the adoption of Christianity by their countrymen, gravely
weighing the arguments for and against it ; and they dis-
cuss the subject calmly, with a sobriety of expression too
often wanting in the religious polemics of the Occident.
For the present, the question remains undecided, but signs
are not wanting that, before another generation has grown
to maturity, a large proportion of the Japanese race will
profess Christianity. I fancy I hear the Reader's query,
uttered with an anticipatory flutter of hope, as to what
particular form of Christianity the Japanese will adopt.
Not yours, dear Reader, whatever sect, or denomination,
you may belong to. That is quite certain. The Japanese
will never enter the fold of a religion whose Pontiff is
enthroned in Rome they shed torrents of Japanese blood,
in the seventeenth century, to assert that fact. Bishop
Nikolai, admirable Missionary though he be, will never
in spite of his grand Byzantine Cathedral, dominating
Tokio from the height of the bluff of Surugadai never
induce the majority of the Japanese to adopt a creed
whose Supreme Head on Earth is the Tsar, and whose
Prophet is Gospodin Pobedonostzeff, Procurator of the Holy
Synod. Nor will the Japanese enter into union with, or
affiliation to, a Church whose Chief Primate's See is at
Canterbury ; nor will they join, en masse, any of the de-
nominations of which the caustic Frenchman said we had
a hundred, as against but one fish-sauce. No, the Japanese

CHINESE CONTENT. 227

will not import their religion ready made. They did so,
it is true, in the case of Buddhism, in the sixth century,
but they soon managed to add native features to the im-
ported creed, to twist it and turn it to suit their national
idiosyncrasies, till it bore but slight resemblance to its
former self. Even in the state in which Buddhism reached
them from Korea, its Indian founders would not have
recognised their beautiful faith, for it had passed through
five centuries of Cathay, and that extraordinary Chinese
race had left its indelible impress upon it, as upon
so many other systems and civilisations that had come
into contact with it, only to be recast in a Chinese
mould.

The Japanese will, in time, profess Christianity, but it
will be Christianity of a Japanese pattern. The same
series of phenomena will culminate, in China, in a similar
result. The Chinese, too, will first acquire and adapt the
material civilisation of the West, and will then, at their
leisure, enquire into the spirit that animates the Occident.
A topsy-turvy mode of proceeding ? Perhaps so, but we
must bear in mind that, in the Far East, the roof is built
before the house it is to cover.

It must always be remembered, in considering the
future of China, that, although they grumble at times as
heartily as any Britons at the hardships they endure and
at the delinquencies of the administration, its people
are, on the whole, satisfied with their lot. There is
in them none of that general, savage, sullen discontent
that filled the masses in France in the last years of
the eighteenth century, and found vent in the "red fool
fury of the Seine," in 1793 ; nor are the occasional
outbreaks of the normally law-abiding, placid Celestials
directed against the form of government under which they
suffer, but against some particular official, or gang of
officials, whose extortion and injustice have gone beyond
the limits, wide as they are, of Chinese endurance. Peti-
tions and Memorials innumerable have been sent up to

228 THE NEW FAR EAST.

the Dragon Throne, and the Son of Heaven has ordered
strict enquiry. But the inculpated officials have set in
motion some of the intricate wheels within wheels that
revolve in the Forbidden Precincts, and the extortion and
cruelty continue unchecked. At last the people, after try-
ing the silent protest of a strike, rise in open revolt, drive
the offenders from their offices, and, sometimes, put them
to death with torments so cruel that they equal some of
the acts that caused the rebellion. As related by Pro-
fessor Douglas in his Society in China, in a revolt that
took place in the Shanghai district, in 1852, the mob
invaded the Yam$n of an unjust and extortionate Man-
darin, and, having captured him, did not kill him, but
merely bit off his ears, every man in the crowd " having
a bite," so as to divide the responsibility equally amongst
them all, and to prevent the indictment of any particular
rioter. If the rising threaten to become serious, over-
whelming forces are ultimately sent to suppress it in the
slow, but sure, way the Chinese authorities have of dis-
couraging rebellion. The chastisement of the ringleaders
and their families is simply appalling in its calculated
ferocity, but, once order is restored, and "peace" reigns
over smoking ruins strewn with corpses, a comparatively
mild and just official is, usually, placed in authority over
the district. In most cases, this wise appointment is made
before the rising attains to grave dimensions. If so, the
easily-governed people soon subside into their every-day
life of patient toil, and love the just magistrate, literally
"like old boots," for, on his being, eventually, transferred
to another district, they beg for a pair of his cast-oft
official boots and hang them up, with a suitable inscrip-
tion, in the archway of the gate through which he left
the town. But, stubbornly rebellious or easily pacified,
the people ascribe the defects in the administration to the
misdeeds of individual officials, not to the rotten system
that allows abuses to prevail. The system is old, very
old, and Chinese, very Chinese, hence it must, in their

" CHINA - FASHION." 229

opinion, be a good and wise system, infinitely superior, in
principle, to anything devised by the brains of foreign
upstarts.

The Occidental may exhaust his argumentative powers
in the attempt to persuade the Chinese to reproduce, in
the native quarters of Shanghai, some semblance of the
admirable sanitary precautions, the municipal order and
cleanliness, the innumerab^ evidences of Occidental ideas
of security and comfort, that characterise the Foreign
Settlements in that city the Chinese, who has these
advantages daily before his eyes, remains unmoved. To
every suggestion of reform he opposes the absolute non
possumus : " No belong China-fashion ! " This " China-
fashion " holds the nation enthralled, from the Emperor to
the "coolie." Even when the enlightened, travelled Chinese
diplomatist, naval or military officer trained abroad,
technical student, barrister-at-law of an English Inn ot
Court, graduate of an Occidental University, or wealthy
merchant returns to Far Cathay he has not been a day
on his native soil before he is made to conform, humbly
and reverently, to the ways he has learned to regard as
antiquated and absurd. He may think so, to his heart's
content, but unless he be a mighty personage indeed
wee to him if he venture to express such subversive
opinions, or to translate them into acts. The very fact
of his residence abroad makes him an object of suspicion
on his return, and relegates him, if an official, to minor
posts, where his knowledge may be utilised without the
fear of his gaining dangerous power. If he belong to
the humbler ranks of the population, if he be a small
trader, an artisan, a seaman, or a labourer, returned, with
a small capital earned, by incessant industry, under a
foreign flag, he resumes the native mode of living with-
out an effort, just as if he had not helped to build
railways, or to clean steam-engines, as if he had never
travelled in a railway train, nor in an electric tramcar
the contrivance he has so aptly described as : " No pushee,

230 THE NEW FAR EAST.

no pullee ; go like Hellee ! " A sponge passes over his
memory of all these things as he steps once more on
the soil of the Middle Kingdom. Great is "China-
fashion," and to it every Chinese must bow ! And he
bows to it, as a rule, willingly, for is it not the good old
fashion that has been kept up for untold generations in
his family, the fashion of his forefathers ?

There we have, in two words, the essence of Chinese
life, the guiding lines of Chinese patriarchal government,
the foundations of Chinese society Family and Ancestors.
The former term really includes the latter, for, through-
out the Far East, the ancestors form part and parcel of
the actual family, just as if they were still living. Not
only the poor, but the dead are always with the living in
the lands of Eastern Asia. In fact, the idea of a parent
being dead, in our sense of the word, does not occur to
the Far Eastern mind. He, or she, has "passed away,"
has "become a Buddha" (the very words "dead,"
" death," " to die," are avoided in speaking of the de-
ceased,) but the spirit remains with the children, to watch
over them and note their actions. The spirits of the
ancestors attach themselves to the tablets, bearing their
posthumous names, that are placed on the family altars,
or that hang, in the case of the wealthy, in what are
really " ancestral halls." They see and hear all that goes
on amongst their descendants, whose rule of conduct
through life is summed up in the ideas : to do nothing
that would displease the ancestral spirits, to do everything
likely to afford them satisfaction. To bring shame upon
the family, that is, not only among its living members,
but upon all their predecessors from the beginning of
human existence, is the one thing every Far Eastern
child is taught must be avoided through life ; to add to
their glory is the one thing to be striven for. Thus, a
Chinese who has deserved well of the State has no livelier
satisfaction than when he reads in the Peking Gazette
that His Imperial Majesty has been graciously pleased to

THE CHINESE AND THEIR ANCESTORS. 231

reward his services by the bestowal of an honorific title
on his grandfather, who passed away thirty years ago, or,
perchance, on an ancestor much more remote. . In every
act of his life, the Chinese, the average Japanese, or the
Korean, has ever present to his mind the thought of his
forefathers. He lives surrounded, as it were, by a crowd
of ghostly relatives, eagerly scanning his every action.
With the Japanese, racial instincts cause the feeling to
predominate that prompts them to add fresh lustre to the
ancestral roll of honour by valiant deeds in war, or by
acquiring civic fame in times of peace. With the Chinese,
entirely lacking in martial ardour, and with poorly developed
public spirit, the whole duty of man towards his ances-
tors has gradually narrowed down, in the vast majority of
cases, to a slavish adherence to the ways that commended
themselves to his forefathers, and an intense dread of
offending them by any departure therefrom. They are
here still, to his mind's eye, all around him, and he dare
not ignore them if he would. The population of China
is roughly estimated, on the best data available the
Government Census returns are not to be implicitly
trusted at about three hundred and fifty millions.
This is misleading. There are milliards of Chinese,
for we must count with the living all their ever-present
dead.

What is the prospect in view for the regeneration ot
the seething mass of pig-tailed humanity ? How is the still
small voice, crying for reform, to reach ears that will not
hear ? What chance have the handful of really enlightened,
patriotic Chinese against the hordes of their narrow-minded
compatriots, backed by the ghostly influence of the milliards
of Chinese of past ages ? Are the present three hundred
and fifty millions for the most part good people, indus-
trious beyond comparison, thrifty to a superlative degree,
of unequalled patience, and wonderfully cheerful, dutiful
in their domestic relations, peaceful, intelligent, fond of
learning to continue to live in their actual condition,

232 THE NEW FAR EAST.

to the vast majority of them a strenuous daily struggle to
keep body and soul together ? Are they, the heirs to the
most ancient civilisation in the world, to remain a prey
to rapacity and revolting cruelty, because their civilisa-
tion, through its very antiquity, is mortifying in a living
death ?

Surely, the present condition of China cannot endure
much longer. Something must happen to save the
wonderful nation from its doom. That something will
come either as a violent shock from the outside, or, it is
to be hoped, as the result of more humane influences
working by the power of reason. If salvation come to
China by the violent means, it will be the work of some
Power that, knowing the Chinese thoroughly, will break
down their stiff-necked pride as it has never been humiliated
in modern times. The invaders, whoever they may be,
will capture the Emperor within the Forbidden Precincts,
and will let his people see him led, a prisoner, in theii
triumphal march through the streets of Peking. They
will remain at Peking and will rule, gradually, over the
whole land, either directly, or, more probably, through a
Puppet-Emperor, either a Manchu, or a descendant of the
Mings for choice. And they will rule with a rod of iron,
humbling Chinese pride at every turn, trampling ruthlessly
on every vestige of the old system, replacing it by the
new ; educating, drilling, surveying, mining, making China
a rich country and the Chinese real men, for the first
time these many years. But much blood will be spilt
in the process, for the vampires who are draining China's
life-blood will not willingly abandon their prey, and, being
Mandarins, they will know how to raise the people in
fierce, if futile, insurrections. But the end would be
Peace, and the Chinese would be saved in spite of them-
selves.

The task I have foreshadowed may seem one beyond
the strength of any single Power. Yet one nation, admir-
ably equipped for the gigantic work, dreams of undertaking

NEW JAPAN TO CREATE NEW CHINA. 233

it, and the dreams of Russia have a tendency, unpleasant
for some States, to become accomplished facts.

What is the alternative course for the fulfilment of
China's regeneration ? It lies in the conversion of a
number of her most capable and honest dignitaries to
ideas of reform. Let these men, few in number as they
may be, but realise the absolute necessity for a radical
change in the system which threatens to ruin their mag-
nificent heritage, and be assured of sound guidance and
strong support, by force of arms, if necessary, in their
efforts, and they will' undertake, and carry out, the salva-
tion of China by the Chinese. They will repeat in the
Middle Kingdom the process that has created New Japan,
not with the same miraculous rapidity, nor, perhaps,
with the same artistic finish ; the Chinese lack many of
the qualities that enabled the Japanese to effect their
marvellous transformation, but they have compensating
characteristics of sterling worth for the task at hand.
What nation is so pre-eminently fitted to influence the
Chinese towards reform, to assist them to regenerate their
country, to guide them by the light of her own experience,
as the Japanese ? Cognate in race, they understand the
Chinese nature far better than any Occidental can hope to
do. Able to communicate with the Chinese by means ot
a common written language, versed in a common classical
literature, imbued with similar philosophical ideas, the
Japanese are in a position to educate the Chinese into
reform in a quarter of the time any Occidental Power, or
combination of Powers, would require for the same purpose.
Signs are not wanting that the Japanese are willing, and
ready, to undertake the beneficent task, but it is hardly
to be expected that they should do so without support of
the strongest kind from a Power, or Powers, guaranteeing
them, and their pupils, from interference by the armed
forces, or the scheming diplomacy, of the nation that
would see its prey escaping from its clutches. Britain
and America would profit most by a peaceful regeneration

234 THE NEW FAR EAST.

of China through Japanese influence. To them would fall
the duty of supporting the reformers with their whole
might. Let the English-speaking peoples realise the facts,
and we may live to see the greatest work of reform ever
undertaken the Men of New Japan regenerating the
people of Old China.

235

CHAPTER V.
THE WOMEN OF THE NEW FAR EAST.

IT may safely be assumed that a glance at the heading of
this Chapter will evolve, in the minds of nine out of ten
of those who read it, a picture of a charming little person
with elaborately-dressed black hair, her slender form clothed
in a sheath of delicately-tinted silk, and her waist encircled
by a broad, stiff sash, also of silk, of a contrasting, but
harmonious, colour, tied at the back in a huge bow.
When an average Occidental thinks of the Far Eastern
woman, it is the woman of Japan that appears to the
mental vision, her sisters of China and of Korea being, to
Western minds, vaguely - known entities, dim, shadowy
forms, filling no frames in the mind's picture-gallery of
national female types. The Japanese woman, on the con-
trary, seems a familiar friend, so frequently has the Western
mind come in contact with her in the literature of fact, and
in that of fiction ; so often has the eye dwelt on her coun-
terfeit presentment. Tiny as she is, she looms larger in
the Occidental conception of Eastern Asia than the
Japanese male. And there are strong reasons for this
preponderance of the Eternal Feminine in our thoughts
about Japan. The traveller just returned from that delect-
able land expatiates in glowing terms of praise on the
lovely landscapes whereon he has feasted his eyes, on the
stately trees and the exquisite flowers, the marvels 01
ancient temples, the treasures of delicate art, the soft,
winning manners of the people, their quaint customs, the

236 THE NEW FAR EAST.

marvellous results of their energy and their intelligence,
and on the ridiculously small sums for which he, the
specially-favoured one, has acquired masterpieces of their
taste and skill.

He pauses, at last, and you interject, enquiringly :
" And the women ? " " Ah 1 the women ..." and,
if the traveller was enthusiastic before, he now becomes
absolutely ecstatic. Surely, those must be charmers indeed
who could thus bewitch the stolid Anglo-Saxon 1 It is
quite certain that the daughters of no other land he has
visited in his wide travels have ever claimed such a large
share of his attention. He has acquired a fund of interest-
ing information, varied and peculiar, about the manners
and customs of Japanese women ; he even displays a
perfectly surprising acquaintance with the details of their
costume, although, in matters of the Occidental feminine
wardrobe, he may be incapable, and pardonably so, of dis-
tinguishing a hat from a bonnet, and either from a toque,
and cannot tell a dolman from a jacket. O Hana San, it
seems, taught him how to use the eating-sticks, O Kiku
San, the bright-eyed Gei-sha, instructed him in many quaint
games of forfeits, O Yuki San danced before him, O Take
San, another pretty Gei-sha, sang to him, accompanying
herself on the samisen, the three-stringed banjo, struck
deftly with a bachi, or "plectrum," and O Kin San made
for him a variety of astonishing little figures of birds and
beasts, and men, and flowers, all made out of flimsy
paper with a twist or two of her exquisite little taper
fingers. He has got the little paper toys now; he will
show them to you, and also his collection of portraits.
He has brought home excellent photographs of all these
" august Misses " whose names he has just so glibly
recited. Here is demure little "august Miss Blossom,"
the dear little waitress, his instructress in the art of eating
with " chop-sticks " ; here "august Miss Chrysanthemum,"
the Gei-sha with the lustrous eyes, looking, in the photo-
graph, as dignified and sedate as if ken, and other rollicking

TENDER MEMORIES. 237

games of forfeits, were frivolities far beneath her notice.
Here is a picture of " Her Augustness Miss Snow,"
"taken," instantaneously, in the very act of dancing.
Here is, actually, her little dancing-fan, red, with bright
flowers painted on it, and the point of junction of the
ribs weighted with lead, so that she may the more easily
balance it and poise it in the posturing which constitutes
her dance a precious treasure this, a souvenir of a fairy-
like entertainment at the Koyo-kwan, the Maple Club, in
the beautifully-wooded Park of Shiba, at Tokio, the Club
at which the "smart set" of Japanese society entertain
those Occidentals whom they would honour. Now he
will show you the portrait, signed by her, of that other
Gei-sha, "august Miss Bamboo," sitting on her little
heels, playing the samisen, just as she sat when she sang
to him, and the photograph of skilful little "august Miss
Gold," the artistic manipulator of bits of paper.

And well, that picture was taken out of the drawer
with the others, but was evidently not intended for
exhibition, as it is hastily pushed back under a pile of
others "such a heap of them, you know, could go on
showing them to you till to-morrow morning" but not
before you have caught a furtive glimpse of a jin-riki-sha
" made for two," and drawn by two sturdy runners the
" man-power carriage " to seat two, ni-nin-nori-no kuruma,
and drawn by a "pair," ni-nim-biki, is the exception
and, on the seat of the baby-carriage, your travelled
friend himself, looking absurdly overgrown, but radiant,
and by his side, a perfectly delicious little " august Miss
Somebody," like an exquisitely-finished doll, with beau-
tifully smooth hair in artistic convolutions, and a light-
coloured summer kimono, with an obi a foot wide round
her little body, a dainty paper parasol in one baby-hand,
and a small fan in the other. Happy traveller ! Why
conceal this pictorial record of cordial relations established
with the nation predestined to be Britain's ally in the
Far East ? Well, our traveller happens to be a Vice-

23 THE NEW FAR EAST.

President of a Young Men's Mutual Improvement Society
in his district, and Honorary Secretary of the local
Association for the Enforcement of Compulsory Virtue,
and some people are so apt to misunderstand.

You have listened to the traveller's talk, you have
admired the photographs in his collection, and you feel
that you are in the presence of an authority who has added
much to your knowledge regarding the women of Japan.
Not that it required much extension, you think, for the
Occident in general rather prides itself on the amount
of information it possesses on the subject. It has read,
over and over again, and accepted as a true representa-
tion of the whole womankind of Japan, the beautiful
word-pictures in " Pierre Loti' "s Madame Chrysantheme ;
it has also read, with delight, the poetic prose of Sir
Edwin Arnold, likewise his graceful verse, and wondered
how much to ascribe to the poet's inspired enthusiasm,
how much to the traveller's keen gift of observation.

And now Sir Edwin has solved the doubt by giving
the best possible proof that his paeans in honour of
Japanese women were sincere ; Lady Arnold, the first
daughter of Dai-Nippon to bear the British Dame's
prefix of "Lady, "is a living example of the qualities,
the grace and the charm the poet has sung. If ever a
poet's marriage was blest by a sense of fitness, it was
when Miss "Jewel" (Tama) Kurokawa "the august
Miss Jewel," how prettily the Japanese name their
daughters 1 became Lady Arnold. The Occident in
general has read little, or nothing, about the women
of Japan beyond what is contained in the works of
" Loti " and of Arnold, and in the bright pages devoted
to them in Henry Norman's The Real Japan a book
which is a marvel of keen and rapid observation, pic-
turesque description, and unprejudiced opinion, with
hardly any inaccuracies to make it fall short of perfec-
tion, when it is considered that it is the outcome of a
short sojourn amongst the Japanese. The author's trained

SOME BOOKS ON JAPAN. 239

journalistic eyes and ears made excellent use of that brief
period, and his " Studies of Contemporary Japanese Manners,
Morals, Administration, and Politics " well deserve the title
under which they appeared, for they represent The Real
Japan as the "Travelling Commissioner" of the Pall Mali
Gazette saw it. Those Occidentals who take a special
interest in Japanese matters have, of course, read what
that Past Master in Japan - lore, Professor Basil Hall
Chamberlain, has written, under the heading " Woman,"
in his terse, crisp " Notes " on all Things Japanese,
forming a handy encyclopaedia for the enquirer, at times
rather caustic in its appreciations, for, if the learned
author has "set naught down in malice," neither has
he "aught extenuated." I need hardly refer to The
Mikado's Empire, by the Reverend W. E. Griffis, to
Professor Morse's Japanese Homes, nor to A. B. Mit-
ford's delightful Tales of Old Japan; they are classics,
as indispensable to those who would understand Japan
aright as is Professor William Anderson's monumental
work, The Pictorial Arts of Japan, to the collector,
or the student, of Japanese art. In all of these works
passages are to be found in Mitford's, for instance, many
pages throwing much light on the position of women
in old Japan and the Japan of the transition-period in
the years following closely on the Great Change, but
they cannot, owing to the dates of their publication,
give us any account of the Japanese woman as the end
of the nineteenth century finds her, after the influence of
Occidental ideas has been at work for thirty years.

Two men, an Occidental and a Japanese, have striven
to enlighten the English-reading world on the subject
of the Japanese woman of the 'nineties, the Occidental by
showing us the inner workings of her heart and mind ;
the Japanese by depicting the conditions of family life
amongst his compatriots. No two men could have been
found better fitted for their task, for there is certainly
no Occidental who has so thoroughly explored the

2 4 o THE NEW FAR EAST.

recesses of the mysterious Japanese heart as that sym-
pathetic " artist in words " Lafcadio Hearn, Lecturer
on English Literature in the Imperial University of Japan
every line of his numerous writings should be read,
and read attentively, by those who would know what
the Japanese think and how the Japanese feel and no
Japanese has ever given us a more lucid account oi
"The Family Relations in Japan" than my friend GOH
Daigoro,* in his valuable Paper under that title, pub-
lished in Vol. II. of the Transactions and Proceedings of
the Japan Society, London. Another Japanese, Dr. HATA
Riotaro, Secretary of the Imperial Japanese Legation
in Vienna, has enabled those who read German to
obtain an insight into the views of Japanese men on
the much-debated question of the position of women,
not only in his own country, but throughout the world,
by publishing, in Vienna, in 1896, Geddnken eines Ja-
paners uber die Frauen, insbesondere die Japanischen,
a translation, by himself, amplified and annotated, of
his book " On the Women of Japan," written in his
own language, that appeared in Tokio, in 1890. But
absolutely the best book on the subject is due, as is
only natural, to a woman's pen. A clever American
lady, Miss Alice Mabel Bacon, making good use of un-
usual opportunities, has given us, in her Japanese Girls
and Women, not only a delightful book, but a true
picture of the Japanese female character, and a store-
house of information about the life of the daughters
of Japan of all classes. Could I be certain that Japanese
Girls and Women was a work easily obtainable by all
those who read these pages, the remainder of this Chap-
ter would consist of the one line : Read Miss Bacon's
book !

As it is, the Occidental public has, undoubtedly,

* Late Japanese Consul at Bombay, and, in 1892-4, Chancellor of the
Imperial Japanese Consulate in London, and Hon. Secretary of the Japan
Society.

"MADAME CHRYSANTHEME." 241

derived the most lasting impression regarding the fair
sex in Japan from " Pierre Loti' "s Madame Chrysantheme,
and more is the pity ! The fascinating pages of Com-
mander Julien Viaud's work to give the French Acade-
mician his right name do, indeed, represent, with that
picturesque local colouring of which he is a master, a
phase of Japanese female life but only one phase. The
book should bear on its title-page a warning somewhat in
these words : " This is the story of a French Naval
Officer's liaison with a Japanese girl of the lower class
and of easy virtue. It must not be taken as purporting
to describe, in any way, the average Japanese woman,
high-born or in humble life." Of the average woman
of Japan, the brilliant French writer had no experience,
engrossed as he was, during his stay at Nagasaki, in his
close study of the fascinating little butterfly whom he
has painted so deftly that she has been accepted by
many thousands of Occidentals as a type of all Japanese
woman-kind. Fair, but frail, charming and graceful,
but empty-headed, affectionate, but fickle, caressing, but
mercenary, pretty, unchaste little O Kiku San " the
august Miss," not Madame, " Chrysanthemum " has, un-
wittingly, done grievous harm, throughout the world, to
the fair fame of her countrywomen. How could she
know, poor little feather-brain, that the French Naval
Officer was making a dispassionate study of her little
ways, and as much of her little heart as he, the man
from a different world, could understand, with the de-
liberate intention to put down his observations in cold
black on white, with the daily regularity of a ship's log,
in order that many thousands of the Guwai-jin, the Foreign
People, should read them, and say "how charming, but,
then, how sad" ! That is, without doubt, the feeling
with which most readers have laid down " Loti' "s famous
book, an impression of subtle charm and a deep pity
for a nation whose women can be at once so sweet and
so frail. But those who read attentively will have noticed
Q

242 THE NEW FAR EAST.

that the author disclaims, in at least one passage, any
knowledge of Japanese ladies. He speaks of meeting
two of them, a mother and her daughter, at a photo-
grapher's in the outskirts of Nagasaki, where they had
just been "taken" amidst the incongruous Louis Quinze
furniture of the "studio," much the same all over the
world, from Nagasaki to the Old Kent Road. He acknow-
ledges their "incontestable distinction," and notes that
they look poor little Chrysanthemum "up and down"
with evident contempt, although, as he is careful to state,
her dress was every bit as " comme il faut" as their
own. And he adds that they exercised a strange fascina-
tion over him, these " ladies of quality," with their long,
narrow, oval faces the aristocratic type of Japan and
that he could not take his eyes off them. They capti-
vated him, he writes, " as things unseen before and incom-
prehensible." Truly " incomprehensible " to one who knew
only O Kiku San the cousin of jin-riki-sha runner
No. 415, cabman and cab-horse in one and her com-
panions ; " incomprehensible," indeed to one who could
so recklessly brand a whole nation with the cruel and
untrue taunt that the word " honnttett" not in its primary
signification of " honesty," but in the sense of " modesty,"
" virtue," " has no meaning in Japan " !

One wishes that " Pierre Loti " had enjoyed the
privilege of the acquaintance of a Japanese lady, or, at
least, of one of the vast multitude of Japanese women
and girls of the middle and working classes who are
as " honnttes " as the great majority of his own charming
countrywomen. What a picture his masterly hand would
have drawn for us, not as in his book of the grisetle
of Japan, but of the good, virtuous, gentle being whose
admirable sense of duty makes her the best of daughters,
the most tender of mothers, an exemplary wife, a loving
sister in one word, the average woman of Japan ! And
as the celebrated French author erred, so do seven out
of ten of the Occidental travellers, and even sojourners,

LOTPS "RASH JUDGMENT." 243

in Japan. Coming into close contact chiefly with such
Japanese women as are condemned by their poverty,
or by the penury, or the greed, of unscrupulous parents,
to stray from the path of virtue, as strictly defined
amongst decent people in the Far East as in the West,
these Occidentals assume that the "morality" of the
woman tempted by their money is the morality of all
Japan. With as much justice might a Japanese returning
from abroad publish a narrative of his experiences on
a midnight walk along some of our London thorough-
fares, say from Piccadilly Circus along Regent Street, of
an evening spent at the Casino de Paris, or the Folies-
Bergere, or of a night devoted to going the rounds
of the hells of the wicked city of Chicago, and inform
his compatriots that, as they might infer from his de-
scriptions, "virtue had no meaning" amongst the women
of the Occident. It is greatly to the credit of Japanese
travellers that, whilst many of them have had but few
opportunities, if any, of becoming acquainted with Occi-
dental ladies, whilst they have had before their eyes
glaring evidence of the terrible depravity common in all
our great cities, not one of them has written a book
containing sweeping assertions as to the absolute lack of
virtue amongst the women of the white race. Their
common-sense taught them not to generalise from isolated
instances, or from one particular class, a truism that
seems to be entirely overlooked by the Occidental de-
tractors of Japanese female virtue.

There have been, however, a few amusing instances
of Japanese travellers, with insufficient preliminary know-
ledge, drawing hasty conclusions from the manners and
customs of one particular class, or locality, although it has
never led them into such mischievous allegations of
national immorality as those I have been discussing. One
of these instances may be quoted from my Paper on
"Some Difficulties encountered by beginners in the study
of the Japanese Spoken Language," read before the Japan

244 THE NEW PAR EAST.

Society on i2th June, 1895, and published in Vol. III. of
its Transactions and Proceedings. In order to impress
on the beginner the importance of avoiding the, fatally
easy, picking-up of "Yokohama P/d/w- Japanese " words
and idioms, so distressing to the ears of the educated
Japanese, to whom the corruption of their beautiful mother-
tongue appears a sacrilege, and who resent it accordingly,
I stated an analogous hypothetical case. Although it
might have seemed far-fetched, and even farcical, I ven-
tured to submit it, not at all for the purpose of raising
a smile, but well knowing the value of an exaggerated
example in fixing a rule in the student's mind. Let us
suppose, I said, that a Japanese seaman has recently
returned to Nagasaki from a voyage to London, which
metropolis he has explored on both sides of the East
India Dock Road and as far westwards as Cable Street,
St. George' s-in-the-East, perhaps even as far as the
Minories. What would be the feelings of an English
gentleman hearing this hardy mariner explain to his
friends that English is a remarkably simple language,
very easy to pick up, consisting chiefly of a forcible,
tnough apparently meaningless, adjective ? Imagine him
adding : " There are a few difficulties in English, to be
sure, such as the double negative, in one case even a
treble one 'there ain't no nothink.' A policeman is
spoken of behind his back as 'the bloomin' copper' and
to his face as ' Mr. Orficer.' Male and female of the
superior classes are addressed as 'Guv'nor' and 'Lydy,'
respectively ; the greeting among friends is ' Wot che'r ? '
or ' Cheero ! ' the intimation of assent is ' Yus,' of dissent
it is ' Gar'n.' Surprise is expressed by ' Strike me pink ! '
and, if tinged with disgust, by ' Blimy ! ' '

This may seem ridiculous, outre, but it is not a
whit worse than what is perpetrated daily by scores of
highly respectable foreigners in Japan, who fondly imagine
they are talking correct Japanese. The words and idioms
I have put into the mouth of the supposititious mariner

AN EASTERN LOT! IN THE WEST. 245

give a very fair sample of the sort of English picked
up in and around the Docks, in 1877-8, by a sturdy
Satsuma sailor of my acquaintance, and used by him in
blissful ignorance of its quality. He was mate of the
S.S. Niigata Maru, the first vessel flying the Japanese
flag that entered the Port of London, a merchant steam-
ship owned by the Mitsu Bishi Company, now the great
and prosperous Nippon Yu-sen Kuwai-sha, the " Japanese
Mail Steamship Company." The worthy Mate's acquaint-
ance with London was confined, practically, within the
boundaries I have indicated, but this did not prevent
him from sending to a leading Tokio newspaper, the
Nichi Nichi Shim-bun (" Daily News,") a series of most
interesting letters on "Life in London," in one of which
he commented rather severely on the want of refine-
ment of the "ladies of the metropolis," who "com-
monly eat fruit as they walk along the streets, and
frequently take their meals of shell-fish, fried fish,
stewed eels, or potatoes, at perambulating food-stalls in
the open air."

Many of the statements made by superficial Occi-
dental observers with regard to the women of Japan
rest on researches as limited in their scope as those of
the Mate of the Niigata Maru amongst the " lydies " of
Ratcliffe Highway. There is considerable excuse to be
made for the error into which the investigators from both
hemispheres have fallen. The Japanese sailor ascribed
the free-and-easy demeanour, the raucous voices, the
anything but refined appearance of those whom he took
for representative English ladies entirely to racial
differences. Had they been Japanese women, even of
the lowest class, he would have been inexpressibly
shocked by their conduct and their general coarseness.
But they were English, and, the canons of good manners
and of good taste being so widely divergent in England
and in Japan, for all he knew to the contrary, Sal
from Tiger Bay and Poll of Limehouse might be behaving

246 THE NEW FAR BAST.

in accordance with the highest social " good form " of the
West.

Conversely, how can the average Occidental Globe-
trotter, especially the Briton, be expected to believe that
the gentle little woman, with hands like those of a
duchess and a low, sweet voice, with exquisite manners
and a quaint, solemn kind of dignity in her courteous
obeisances, a curious refinement in the graceful motions
of her hands and arms, and delicate, quiet taste displayed
in every item of her admirably becoming costume, is,
socially, on a par with brazen 'Liza of the New Cut, in
her tawdry finery, her ill-made clothing of startling
aniline hues, her monstrous hat bedecked with hired
ostrich plumes poor 'Liza with her coarse, red hands
and her hoarse voice, her manners of the gutter and her
wit of the gin-palace bar ? Small blame attaches to
him if he really believes the little charmer to belong to,
at least, the middle class of Japan, and, consequently,
accepts her moral standard as that of a vast number
of her countrywomen belonging to what would be called,
in the West, " respectable " families. Reasoning from
this erroneous premise, he assumes that those Japanese
women and girls whom he sees working for their living,
and, presumably, originally of lower social rank than the
particular "Madame Chrysantheme " he has been study-
ing, must be equally frail. Has it not been repeated to
him, ad nauseam, that these people have no concep-
tion of virtue, or of modesty ? So he frequently treats
the maids at the inn, the charming human humming-
birds who wait upon him at the tea-house, and the
Gei-sha summoned to entertain him, with a cavalier
familiarity that would infallibly lead to his summary
expulsion from any well-regulated hotel or public-house,
or other place of public entertainment, at home, did he
dare to show such want of respect to a chamber-maid,
or to one of the haughty fair ones serving at a bar.
He means no harm, in nine cases out of ten ; he has

THE TRUTH ABOUT THE TEA-HOUSES. 247

been told that "Japanese girls don't mind what you
say to them, and as to the tea-house girls, well, they're
no better than they should be ! "

And he has been totally misinformed, for there are
tea-houses and tea-houses. The ordinary Chaya is a well-
conducted, orderly, bright, clean establishment, generally
in a picturesque situation, where light refreshment may be
obtained at very small cost, where the weary traveller
may rest, where friends may meet and converse it is the
Japanese counterpart of the French cafe, the German
Bierhalle, and the Viennese Kaffeehaus, not of the British
public-house, nor the American "saloon." But there are
tea-houses less respectably conducted, frequented by shady
characters for questionable purposes, just as there are
certain cafts in Paris to which no Frenchman would take
his wife, but which the travelling Briton, in the innocence
of his heart, sometimes patronises with Mrs. Briton and
their daughters. The Japanese inhabitants know perfectly
well which tea-houses in the town are respectably con-
ducted, and which are not. In the former, the attendants
are good, hard-working, girls smiling sweetly at the
customers, certainly, but that is second nature in the land
of smiles and bows ready to greet any little pleasantry
with silvery laughter, for is it not the "Honourable
Guest " who has been pleased to crack the " August
Joke " ? But they are good little women, as capable ol
guarding their virtue as any in the world, and it saddens
one to think how often they endure, from a feeling ot
consideration for the foreigner "who does not know any
better," they pityingly think, cavalier treatment they
would not submit to from a Japanese. In the other sort
of tea-houses it is otherwise. The attendants look for no
respect, and they get none.

I have devoted so much space to a defence of the
character of Japanese women, and especially of the classes
with which the traveller is most frequently brought into
contact, because I know, by experience, how wide-spread

24$ THE frEW FAR EAST.

is the Occidental belief in their lack of chastity. There
are unchaste people, male and female, in Japan about
as many as in any Occidental country. That is the truth
of the matter.

What is the social position, then, of the Japanese
woman ? Truth compels me to state that it is not com-
mensurate with her good qualities. And lest it should be
thought that I am inclined to take too favourable a view
of those qualities, and of the position to which they entitle
her, I may as well state, at once, that I am rather well
qualified to judge impartially in the matter, as I am, of
all the laymen who have written about the Japanese
woman, one of the few perhaps the only one whose
opinion: is not in danger of being warped by sentimental
considerations. My memory holds no tender reminis-
cences of sweet dalliance with any fair "august Miss
Plum " (O Ume San) or " august Miss Spring - time,"
(O Haru San) with O Kiku San, or O Hana San, with
"Little Miss Violet" (Ko - murasaki San*) or "august
Miss Harp " (O Koto San). Unknown to me are the
pangs of parting from a dear little figure, in a soft
grey kimono and a mauve obi, standing, disconsolate and
tearful, on the fast receding shore. But of one kind
of Japanese woman I am, perchance, entitled to speak
with an amount of personal acquaintance not easily to
be acquired by Occidentals, for it has been my great good
fortune to enjoy the friendship of several Japanese ladies,
who have honoured me with an insight into their pure and
elevated minds. It is to these true-hearted women, of a
class with which the Globe-trotter hardly ever, and the
average foreign resident but seldom, becomes acquainted,
the dames de qualite so "incomprehensible" to the brilliant
French impressionist, that I owe what knowledge I possess
of that honour to humanity the real Lady of Japan. In

* Literally: "Little Miss Purple."

THE JAPANESE LADY. 249

many hours of conversation on the topic of the position
assigned to themselves, and to their sisters in the lower
social ranks, by law and by custom in Japan, by close
observation of their conduct towards their husbands and
their children, I have formed my estimate of the worth
of the educated, high-bred Japanese woman, and it is a
high one. Gifted with every domestic virtue, absorbed in
the manifold duties devolving upon her according to the
Far Eastern social constitution too much absorbed in
those duties to realise the Western ideal of a woman
moving in Society the Japanese woman of our day, her
mind enlightened by the excellent education a wise
Government has placed within her reach, has attained an
intellectual level undreamt of in the days of her mother's
youth. Fortunately for Japan, the new light that has
entered into her mind has not caused her to abandon the
solid principles of duty, filial, conjugal and maternal,
handed down to her through generations of patient,
obedient, helpful wives and loving, devoted mothers. And,
as I have already stated, she does not occupy, as yet,
the position in the social fabric to which her worth
entitles her. The average Japanese man seems not to
be aware of his good fortune and, whilst kind, even
loving, to his womankind, stoutly denies them a place
on an equal plane with himself.

Let it not be thought, even for a moment, that the
Japanese woman is made unhappy by the superiority arro-
gated to himself by the Japanese man. She is, as a rule,
quite content with her place in the social system, and,
though deeply grateful for the improvement in her legal
status effected by the new Civil Code, promulgated in 1890,
it is very doubtful if she would, for a long time to come,
have agitated for the limited rights it has pleased the
men of New Japan to confer upon her. To the
" advanced " section of British womankind, and to the
great body of the women of America, their Japanese
sisters must appear poor, spiritless creatures, content to

250 THE NEW FAR EAST.

occupy an inferior position through life. Whether that
position is really as lowly as it appears is a moot point.
In the meantime, let our female champions of " advanced "
views take heart of grace the women of New Japan are
moving forward, slowly but surely, towards emancipation,
not exactly, however, in the direction so dear to the
aforesaid champions not towards the attainment of poli-
tical rights. The progressive, emancipatory tendency is
manifested rather in smaller, social matters. Thus, at a
dinner-party in purely Japanese style given, in Tokio,
by an ex-Cabinet Minister, the host's wife helped her
husband to entertain the guests, the married men were
accompanied by their wives, and there was actually a
Japanese spinster present of the ripe age of twenty-six
a rarity in a country where people marry early. It should
be noted that the entertainment was in Japanese style,
so that the invitation of husbands and wives and 01
the independent spinster was a startling innovation.
According to the custom of Old Japan, the host would
have invited his male friends to a "Stag Party," the
female element indispensable for the gaiety of the feast
being supplied by Gei-sha, or " Accomplishment- mongers,"
hired professional entertainers ; the hostess would not
have appeared, but would have invited her female friends
not necessarily the wives of her husband's guests on
another occasion. Had the ex-Cabinet Minister's enter-
tainment been one of those excellent dinners a I'Euro-
ptenne he and his wife know so well how to give, the
function would have differed in no respect from a dinner
in Grosvenor Square, save for the physiognomy of the
hosts, the guests excepting the sprinkling of Occidentals
sure to be present and of the servants, and the Japanese
dress worn by some of, unfortunately not by all, the ladies
present. From hors d'ceuvre to savouries, the repast, the
table decorations and the service would have been indis-
tinguishable from those arranged under the superintendence
of an experienced Occidental hostess. But the dinner was

A JAPANESE "PIONEERS 2 si

in Japanese style, and there was, thus, no necessity foi
the introduction of such thoroughly Western and subver-
sive customs as were implied by the presence of both
sexes at the same board, or, rather, assemblage of boards,
for, at a Japanese meal, each person has a separate little
table, but a few inches high, and on it a tray, laden with
dainty bowls and saucers of Lilliputian dimensions, so as
to give the impression that a number of adults have
relapsed into childhood and are having rare fun at a
dolls' dinner-party. The mixed assembly at the ex-
Cabinet Minister's dinner proved most successful, and led
to imitation by bold social reformers in various quarters.
The influence of the novel conditions under which the
"pioneer" mixed dinner was given made itself felt at
once. A Japanese friend of mine returned from the feast
in a highly perturbed state ot mind. Stood Japan where
it did ? Was Fuji's sublime peak still in existence ? Well
might he ask himself these questions. His experiences at
the dinner-party had, indeed, been startling. To begin
with, he had been introduced by the hostess to the afore-
said spinster a charming lady, certainly, pretty and clad
in kimono and obi of artistically-assorted colours but the
idea of being solemnly marched up to a lady, to be
formally presented to her as she rose from her seat,
namely, her own heels, tucked under her on the floor,
and then to be requested to " take her in to dinner " !
To a Japanese mind the idea was most incongruous. Had
the lady been attired in European dress, well and good
no Japanese would have thought of behaving towards her
in any but the most correct manner prescribed by Occi-
dental etiquette, but to treat her so deferentially when
clothed in the costume of Old Japan that went against
the grain. This strange difference in the treatment ot
women according to the clothing they adopt is very
marked in the relations between husband and wife. The
same Japanese who, without compunction, strides along
the street, or enters a room, with his wife meekly trotting

252 THE NEW FAR EAST.

behind him, at times lets her stand whilst he remains
seated, and allows her to kneel before him, bending her
pretty forehead to the mats, in humble salutation when
he leaves home, or returns to it all this when they are
both in native garb gives her his ami when walking,
follows her into a house, or an apartment, and will not
sit whilst she stands, when both have donned Occidental
clothes.

To return to my friend's experiences at the inno-
vating function : he was placed next to the unattached
lady. Their trays full of dolls' dinner-service ware a
fresh tray for each course were set down close to each
other, and, from the preliminary hors d'ceuvre, the sui-
mono, or soup, served in lacquered bowls, and the various
relishes, washed down with sake in tiny cups, through
the other two courses, each consisting of several dishes, to
the final rice, conversation flowed freely between him and
his fair neighbour. So freely, on her part, as fairly
to bewilder him, for she spoke, and spoke well, on the
current topics of the day, giving her opinion frankly,
especially on matters of art ; she was a professional
artist, a painter, and was executing a commission for
some panels, painted on silk, for the drawing-room of
the host's "European-style" house (like many wealthy
Japanese he had a house built and furnished gene-
rally in very bad taste after the Occidental fashion,
communicating with a beautiful Japanese dwelling un-
furnished in the purest style of Japanese domestic decor-
ation). My friend was shocked, he could not help
confessing that he had enjoyed the evening immensely,
but the lady's want of restraint had jarred upon his
nerves. Just fancy, a woman who gave her opinion
unasked, who contravened all rules of decorum by start-
ing subjects of conversation ! She had evidently for-
gotten the wise maxims the Japanese apply to women
as we try to apply them, with but scant success, to
children in the nursery, that "they should be seen, not

THE JAPANESE EVE. 253

heard," and that "they should speak when they are
spoken to."

When the heaven-born progenitors of the Japanese
race, Izanagi and Izanami, first stood on the Floating
Bridge of Heaven, and had created the Islands of Japan
out of the coagulated foam dripping from the tama-boko,
the "Jewel-Spear" of Heaven, wherewith they had
stirred up the primeval ocean of Chaos, spreading beneath
them "like floating oil," they set up the spear as a
Central Pillar, and they walked round it separately, the
Male, Izanagi, turning by the left, the Female, Izanami,
by the right. When they met, the Female spoke first,
exclaiming : " How delightful ! I have met with a lovely
youth ! " Truly, this Japanese Eve was intensely human ;
her cri du cceur rings fresh and true across the ages that
separate the Night of the Gods from our days. But her
outburst displeased her Adam, who said : "I am a man,
and by right I should have spoken first. How is it that,
on the contrary, thou, a woman, shouldst have been the
first to speak ? This was unlucky. Let us go round
again." And they went round again. When they met,
this time, the Male spoke first, saying : " How delightful !
I have met a lovely maiden" ! Now that the proper
natural relations of the sexes, according to the ideas of
Old Japan, had been restored, the courtship of Izanagi and
Izanami ran its smooth course. Those who would know
more of the delightfully naive story of the Creation, and
of the highly interesting exploits of the " August Deities "
of the Shin-to religion, should read one of the scholarly
translations, erudite but very readable, of the most ancient
Japanese works extant : the Kojiki, or " Record of Ancient
Matters," completed in A.D. 712, translated by Professor
B. H. Chamberlain, and published in the Supplement to
Vol. X. of the Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan,
and the Nihon-gi, or "Chronicles of Japan," completed
in A.D. 720, rendered into English by W. G. Aston,
C.M.G., and issued, in two volumes, as Supplement I,

254 THE NEW PAR EAST.

to the Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society.
The Nihon-gi has also been translated into German,
with the painstaking thoroughness characteristic of his
nationality, by Professor Dr. Karl Florenz, of the Imperial
University of Tokio.

The origin of the Shin-ts Myth of the Creation is
shrouded in the mist of prehistoric ages, but Izanagi's re-
proof to Izanami remains the terse expression of Japanese
male opinion on the subject of the Eternal Feminine. My
Japanese friend who took his " advanced " countrywoman
in to dinner had enjoyed all the advantages of modern
Japanese education on the Occidental plan ; to him Izanagi
and Izanami were shadowy figures, to be regarded with
purely antiquarian interest, yet the idea embodied in their
first conversation was so deeply rooted in his mind that it
took him a long time to overcome the feeling of pained
surprise with which he listened to remarks, clever and to the
point though they were, offered spontaneously by a Japanese
lady in her national dress. The culminating shock was given
to his sense of propriety when the fair painter handed
him her card, drawn from the beautiful " pocket-book "
of brocade worn in her obi, and expressed the pleasure it
would give her if he would call, some afternoon, and discuss
her pictures over a cup of tea ! And this extreme type of
the New Woman of Japan represents a class that is grow-
ing very slowly, it is true, but still growing of women
who are determined to treat men on an equal footing. It
is quite certain that they will meet with resolute opposi-
tion. It is not that the men of New Japan have any
rooted objection to the intellectual advancement of their
womankind ; on the contrary, every effort in that direction
enjoys the patronage of the ladies of the Imperial Family,
and especially of the Empress who spends a great deal
of her time in visiting and inspecting educational institu-
tions for girls and for the training 01 female teachers and
the active support of the Government. I have had many
earnest talks on the subject with several of the men who

WOMAN'S EDUCATION IN JAPAN. 255

direct the thoughts of New Japan, and I found them all
agreed as to the necessity of educational facilities of the
highest order for the rising generation of Japanese women,
facilities already far in advance of anything within the reach
of the female population of many European countries. One
and all, the leaders of Japan are in favour of an extension
of the admirable system of female education a combina-
tion of adaptations from the best features of the systems
in vogue in the State Schools of Germany, Scandinavia,
the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the United States of
America now firmly established in the Island Empire.
It is when we begin to inquire into the reasons for this
enthusiasm for female education that we perceive the vast
difference between the Japanese point of view and our
own.

The majority of Japanese men desire to see their
womankind well educated for reasons hardly to be dis-
tinguished from that given by the St. James's Street
"Johnnie," who averred that "education of the lower
orders is a rippin' good thing, don't you know ; at least,
teachin' them to read, so that when you come home in the
small hours you can pin a paper on your bedroom door
tellin' your man not to call you till nine thirty." The
educated woman will be the better able to perform her
duties as a daughter-in-law the first consideration as a
wife, as a mother and a daughter ; therefore let her be
educated. That is the Japanese reasoning. To be helpful
is the one object the Japanese woman is taught to strive
for; helpful to her husband's parents, to her husband, to
her children, just as she has, in girlhood, been helpful to
her own parents. And nobly do the women of Japan
realise what is expected of them, often under most adverse
conditions. The mother-in-law, so often and, in many
cases, so unjustly, made the butt of cheap satire in the
Occident, is a veritable terror in the Far East, but on the
other side of the family. In Eastern Asia it is not the
wife's mother who watches over her child's domestic

256 THE NEW FAR EAST.

happiness with a jealous vigilance popularly supposed to
entail domiciliary visits hardly to be endured by the
terrorised husband, but the husband's mother who insists
on being obeyed by her daughter-in-law, and on seeing
that her beloved son is made thoroughly comfortable by
the wife he has brought home, in most cases, to live
under the paternal roof. So exacting is the old lady, at
times, so exasperating does her continual "nagging"
become, especially when enforced, as it sometimes is
amongst the lower classes, by blows with her metal tobacco-
pipe, that wives have been known to seek release in death.
Even in those households where the same dwelling does
not shelter two or three generations, and the parents of
husband and wife are only occasional guests, the wife is
obliged to show the utmost deference to her husband's
parents, and to all his relatives older than himself. One
might expect that a long continuance of such subjection to
the will of others, together with the heavy burden of
domestic duties, and the engrossing care for, and training
of, the children, would have crushed all spirit out of the
Japanese woman and reduced her to a mere household
drudge. Such is by no means the case.

The gentle, low-voiced, soft-mannered, little woman
apparently existing only for the purpose of doing the
bidding of her husband and of his parents, of keeping his
house and his clothes in good order, and last, but certainly
not least, of rearing a family gives proof, when occasion
arises, of the possession of an iron will. When honour
and duty are at stake, the meek little lady becomes a
heroine, towering, head and shoulders, above the ordinary
run of womankind. The heart that flutters beneath the
soft kimono is as stout in the hour of national emergency,
or of imminent peril to personal honour, as that of any
Samurai of old. The tiny, soft hands are as ready to-
day to bear arms in defence of Japan's sacred soil, or to
grasp the dagger that will bring death as the means or
escape from dishonour, as they were in the days of Old

JAPANESE HEROINES. 257

Japan, when every lady was trained in the art of fencing
with the halberd, in order to defend the women's apart-
ments, the last stronghold of the castle overrun by the
enemy. During the Avar with China, women volunteered
in large numbers for service in the field, and were much
mortified at the refusal they met with from the authori-
ties. Unable to take an active part in the warfare, they
did wonders in the more appropriate work of nursing the
sick and the wounded, and, in innumerable instances, both
in the hospitals and at home, gave convincing proofs of
fearless devotion, of stoical resignation and of ardent
patriotism. The latter virtues were made especially mani-
fest in the manner of their receiving the tidings of the
death in the field, or at sea, of husband, or son, and in
the way in which the bereavement was borne.

And, in many cases, the bereavement meant the loss
of the bread - winner, and threw the task of supporting
herself and her little ones on the widow, or compelled
aged parents to return to work. All was borne without
a murmur ; the beloved ones had fallen fighting for their
country, with the cry " Hei-ka ban-zai/" ("Long live
His Majesty ! " literally : " Ten thousand years to His
Majesty ! ") on their lips. They died for Japan and in
the moment of victor}' ; a Japanese woman would rather
her dear ones perished thus than quietly passing away on
a bed of sickness.* The records of the conduct of "the
folks at home " during the war teem with instances of
patriotic devotion on the part of women. A typical case
is that of the grand old lady, bereft of all . her male
relatives, husband, brother, and sons, all killed, or carried
away by sickness, at the seat of war, who received the
successive tidings with stoical calm, until the sad news

* Or, more correctly, " on a mat and quilt of sickness," for there are
no beds in Japanese houses. The idea of resting on an elevated sleeping-
place is terrifying to the un-Europeanised Japanese mind. Several of my
Japanese friends have told me that, on first attempting to sleep in an
Occidental bed, their rest \vas much disturbed by the necessity of having
repeatedly to climb on. to the bedstead after rolling off it on to ths floor.
K

258 THE NEW FAR EAST.

reached her of the death of her younger son, the last of
the family to fall in defence of his country. Then the
old mother burst into tears, exclaiming : " I weep at last,
but do not misunderstand the cause of my tears ! I
weep because I have no one left whom I can send out
to die for our countr} 7 , and because, were I to marry
again, I am too old to give the Emperor more warriors to
fight his battles."

It does not need the stimulus of war to prompt
Japanese women to deeds of self-sacrifice. In May, 1891,
a young servant-girl journeyed by train from Kanagawa
to Kioto for the express purpose of offering her innocent
lile in sacrifice as a vicarious atonement for the disgrace
to the national honour resulting from the murderous
attack, at Otsu, on the Tsarevich Nikolai Alexandrovich,
who has since succeeded to the Throne of All the Russias,
by the fanatically demented Policeman TSUDA Sanzo.
Yuko, "Valiant," that was her personal name her family
name was HATAKEYAMA^ was in full possession of her
senses when she cut her slender throat on the threshold
of the Government Buildings at Kioto. Her touching fare-
well letter to her brother proves it ; so does the docu-
ment in which she informed the authorities of the old
Imperial City of the motives for her deliberate suicide.
She had read in the newspapers that His Imperial Majesty
was grieving sorely because of the foul attempt on the
life of the nation's honoured guest, and she trusted that
the voluntary sacrifice of her own pure young life would
expiate the crime, remove the blot from the national
scutcheon, and lift the burden of sorrow from the Em-
peror's heart.

Calmly and quietly she proceeded to carry out hei
plan, entering every little item of her modest expenditure,
to the very last moment, in her note-book the most
pitiful " Cash Account " imaginable down to the pur-
chase of a newspaper and to the trifling fee paid to a
kami-yui t a female hairdresser, for putting a keen edge

NO "AMATEUR FLIRTING" IN JAPAN. 259

on the little razor with which she ended her life. She
entered, too, the amount of money remaining in her
purse, five Yen and a few Sen, sufficient, she hoped, for
her funeral expenses ; and, with the purse, the account-
book, and the two explanatory letters she had written,
placed in her bosom, she tied her long under-girdle of
silk tightly round her clothing, just above her knees, for
she was the daughter of an impoverished Samurai, and
knew that a Japanese of good breeding, like a citizen of
Ancient Rome, must fall decently in death. To us Occi-
dentals the story of the poor girl's self-immolation seems
unspeakably pitiful, but the men of New Japan relate it
with a strange light gleaming in their eyes, and they
say : " She was a true Japanese woman ; in her heart
burned the flame of the genuine Yamato Damashi-i, the
undying Spirit of Old Japan."

The men of Japan frequently speak of a girl of equal
social rank as "a good, dutiful girl, one who would make
a good wife .and a good mother," seldom as "a sweet
girl" sweetness "goes without saying" in the land of
gentle, amiable women never of a "jolly girl." The
jollity is left to those girls who have to live by it, the tea-
house waitresses and, especially, the "Accomplishment-
mongers" the Gei-sha, who are the Professional Flirts
of Japan. Amateur flirting does not exist in Japanese
social life. The accomplishments that ensure a woman's
social success in the Occident are relegated, in the Far
East, to those who are paid to entertain the men; theirs
are the wit and the power of repartee, the interesting
small talk on the topics of the day, the amusing little
affectations, in short, all the delightful frivolities that go
to make up the eveiy-day conversation of the " charming
woman" of the West, but that are considered beneath
the dignity of the Japanese lady, absorbed in the serious
business of female life.

I fancy I hear my fair Readers exclaim : " Not the
least little bit of innocent flirtation ! What a stupid

260 THE NEW FAR EAST.

country to live in 1 " Certainly, the absence of that
freedom in the relations of young people of different sex,
which is usual with the English-speaking nations, deprives
the young Japanese of much harmless pleasure, but it is
not, as might be thought, a hindrance to marriage, for,
in Japan, everybody's betrothal is arranged through the
intermediary of the Nakodo, or "Go-between," who ne-
gotiates with the parents on both sides. Perhaps the loss
entailed on the community by the restriction of flirting
to professionals may be counter-balanced by the gain
accruing from greater security of female morals. The
average Occidental may well be startled by the mere
suggestion that the virtue of women may be efficiently
protected more efficiently, perchance, than in the West
by the institutions and customs of a nation he has been
taught to look upon as lacking morality. I venture to
maintain that such is really the case. Japanese girls of
the lower, and the lower middle, classes spend a con-
siderable part of their leisure hours in a manner, appa-
rently, identical with that in vogue in the corresponding
classes in Great Britain and in America. They array
themselves in their best clothes, not, it is true, in cheap
finery, imitating the dress of the class above them, as
their Western sisters do, but in neat, clean attire, tasteful
and becoming; then they "take their walks abroad," just
as in Occidental countries, generally in couples, hand in
hand, or in joyous groups, merrily chatting, and whispering
to one another those mysterious confidences, common to
girlhood all the world over, that lead to fits of uncon-
trollable giggling, and, occasionally, to peals of silvery
laughter. They have even been known to let the glances
of their bright eyes rest, for a moment, on the passing
stranger of the opposite sex, and even to smile at him,
especially if he be an I-jin San, a "Mr. Foreigner," for
he is, in all respects, such an abnormal creature that a
little lapse from strict decorum is pardonable when he is
the cause of it.

THE " YOUNG PERSON" IN JAPAN. 261

So far, the Japanese girl's behaviour may be said
to be indistinguishable from that of the English-speaking
Occidental girl of the same social standing the lower,
and lower middle, classes but it differs in this respect that
she does not walk out in the company of her brother's
male friends, nor does she become acquainted with
young men on the slightest, perfunctory introduction,
nor, as is sometimes the case in the West, on no intro-
duction at all. She does not "walk out," nor "keep
company " with anyone, as her English-speaking sister in
Western climes frequently does with a young man of
whose antecedents and moral character she knows little,
or nothing.

Herein lies, I maintain, the superiority of the Japanese
social system. I am, of course, fully aware that I am
treading on dangerous ground, as it is an Article of Belief
amongst Britons and Americans that there is no harm in
this free intercourse between young men and girls of the
classes that work for their living themselves, or whose
parents are in that position. "I can trust my boys and
girls to behave themselves in any circumstances," proudly
avers the British Paterfamilias ; " Our girls are smart, you
bet, and can take care of themselves all the time," is the
boast of the American father.

The truth is that the fathers being too busily en-
gaged in the accumulation of pounds sterling, or dollars,
their wives too much engrossed in domestic duties and
social pleasures, and their sons too deeply interested in
business and in sport, to be able to devote much atten-
tion to the doings of the girls of the family, it is
found generally convenient to indulge in a feeling of
absolute security without enquiring very closely into
its justification, and assurances such as those I have
quoted are repeated until they come to be implicitly
believed. As a matter of fact, the wide latitude given
to young people in English-speaking countries is, in the
majority of cases, harmless ; but in a very considerable

262 THE NEW PAR EAST.

minority, on the other hand, it leads indubitably to evils
from which Japan is remarkably free.*

Happily as the Japanese people are situated in this
respect, they are not entirely spared those dramas pas-
sionnels so frequent in the West. Passion works havoc
in every race. Cases of conjugal infidelity occur amongst
the Japanese, as in every nation, and every girl is not
content to await the good offices of the Nakodo, the
"Go-between," and her parents' subsequent bidding, before
uniting herself to a man. Instances are not rare and
supply material for innumerable novels and plays, and
for sensational paragraphs in the newspapers of young
people plighting their troth spontaneously, and resolving to
die together when they despair of obtaining the parental
consent to their union. These double suicides through
love, called jo-shi, or shin-ju, sometimes terminate a
clandestine liaison that has been, or is in danger of being,
discovered; much more frequently they are pure "Bridals
of Death," sealing for eternity the hitherto platonic affec-
tion of two young hearts the victims are often mere boys
and girls despairing of the fulfilment, in this world, of
their yearning.

In such a case the loveis will plight their troth to
each other, sometimes, "for three, or more, successive
existences" using, curiously enough, an idea borrowed
from the Buddhist belief in the transmigration of souls
in connection with suicide, an act strongly condemned by
Buddhism sometimes "for ever and ever." They then,

* So much one may say, without writing one's self down a sour old
curmudgeon, wishing to curtail the pleasant liberty enjoyed by girls and
young men in British communities and in America. No, I am not sour,
Reader, nor a curmudgeon ; I am not even old, and my attitude towards
youth is that of " Edward Lear's "

' Old Derry-Down-Derry,

Who loved to see little folks merry,

and of Stranger's immortal optimist:

" Et gai ! Cest la philosophic
Dn grot Roger Bonttmfa"

LOVERS 1 SUICIDKS. 263

in many instances, partake together of a little feast and
die, by their own hands, clasped in a last often in a
first embrace. They invariably leave a written state-
ment of their motives. Occasionally, they commit suicide
separately, and in places distant from each other, but, as
a rule, they die clasped in each other's arms, by dagger,
or poison,- or, more frequently, by casting themselves,
tightly bound together with the girl's under-girdle, into a
river.

The introduction of railways has added an additional
method of consummating the Nuptials of Death, and
the TSkio express, thundering along the line, has sent
more than one couple of unfortunate lovers to seek blissful
reunion "for ever and ever" in the Mei-do, the World
Hereafter. Should, by any chance, one of the lovers be
saved from death by the intervention of others, the sur-
vivor is bound, in honour, to commit suicide at the earliest
opportunity, so as to rejoin the beloved twin-soul. A
girl, thus saved, who long survived her lover's suicide
would be despised by her companions as a craven ; a
man neglecting his obligation to abide by his plighted
troth, and remaining in this world as the survivor of an
attempted jo-shi, would be hounded out of the society of
his comrades as a base coward and a perjurer.

On the whole, it may safely be asserted that the state
of morality amongst the women of the lower and the
middle classes of Japan compares very favourably with the
conditions obtaining in the Occident. As to the highest
classes, a few, very rare, exceptions apart, their women
are virtuous and set a worthy example of good works and
of personal dignity to their less fortunately situated sisters.
Their life is spent in a calmer atmosphere than that of the
overheated, overstrung conditions of Western social life.
Free from the rush of excitement, the mad race after
pleasure, constantly sought, but seldom found, that whirls
along the " Society Women " of the Occident, they are,
as yet, untainted by the neurotic craving for " smartness, "

264 THE NEW FAR EAST.

that saps the foundations of family life in those Western
social circles whose actions are most prominently before
the public.

It must not be assumed that Fashion has no power
over the female mind in Japan, but its tyranny is less
capricious than in the West, and its decrees take a longer
time to permeate through the social strata. In Japan,
one does not see the costumes of the highest classes
repeated, in cheap and tawdry imitations within a few
weeks of their introduction by fashion's decree on the
persons of serving-maids and factory-girls out for a holiday.
All Japanese women dress well when wearing their native
costume, because their clothes are simple, clean, artistic
in colouring, neatly arranged, and becoming, not only to
the wearer's face and figure, but to her station in life.
The British housemaid enjoying wages to the amount of
eighteen pounds per annum, the shopgirl, or the barmaid,
in receipt of a munificent salary of seven shillings and six-
pence a week, with board and lodging, or, possibly, a
pound a week if living at her own expense, the "Chorus-
lady," earning from twenty-five shillings to a maximum
of two pounds a week, sally forth in their leisure hours
attired in clothes and trinkets that would, were they
really what they pretend to be, imply the outlay of at
least half a year's income on their purchase. In Japan,
on the contrary, in matters of feminine apparel " things
are what they seem," and this genuineness extends to the
person of the wearer except in the matter of the com-
plexion, often artificial!)*- modified with the help of powder,
and of paint, and sometimes, in the case of professional
entertainers, even of gilding, applied to the centre of
the lips.

But the "make up" is so palpable, the powder is so
thickly strewn, the little patch of red on the lips so
brilliant and sharply outlined, that there is no attempt at
deceit. As to the figure, it is tnith itself; "improvers" of
various kinds are mysteries unknown in the Japanese

FASHIONS IN DRESS. 265

female dress, the small cushion sometimes worn at the
back, under the -waist, being intended solely to support
the great bow of the wide sash, the obi. The clothes and
ornaments worn by Japanese women being really com-
posed of the materials indicated by their appearance, and
these being, frequently, of a costly nature, a woman's
complete costume sometimes represents a sum entirely
out of proportion to the means of her husband or hei
parents. This arises not from extravagance, but from the
fact that she is wearing heirlooms, for the beautiful wear-
resisting products of the silk-looms of Old Japan are
handed down from mother to daughter, the changes of
fashion being so slight that they can easily be followed
by minor alterations that do not injure the fabric, noi
require the ornament, such as a particular kind of hair-
pin, to be discarded. The Japanese lady prides herself
on the simplicity of her raiment and on the unobtrusive
colour and pattern of its materials.

The women who devote the greatest amount of
time and attention to their personal adornment, which
forms no inconsiderable part of their stock-in-trade,
the Gei-sha the professional entertainers, singing-girls,
and trained flirts are equally careful that their dress
should be in the quietest taste, but they are easily to be
distinguished from the ladies of the land, just because the
simplicity of the Gei-sha s costume is too apparently a
studied effect. The quiet colours and simple adornment
of her dress are too evidently the result of much fore-
thought and of a determination to be trs-chic. That
fascinating little person, the Gei-sha, has insinuated her-
self into such world - wide notoriety, she has conquered
such a prominent position in every one of the most
popular works on Japan, that I shall devote no more
space to her and to her artfully artless little ways. With
her well-developed commercial instinct, for she is a busi-
ness-like little charmer, she might cause to be noted the
number of sticks of incense that burn down to their

266 THE NEW PAR EAST.

sockets, one after another, in the small square marked
with her name on the " time-board " kept at the Gei-sha-
ya, or Agency, that lets her out for hire, whilst I am
writing about her, and the next mail from Japan might
bring me a bill a yard long, claiming many Yen for "the
space of fourteen and a half sticks of incense of the time
and sendees of the august Miss Lotus (O Hasu San)"
or "the august Miss Snow (O Yuki San)." It is, how-
ever, necessary that I should devote a few lines to the
Gei-sha to clear their character from an imputation that
has been sown broadcast. The general impression with
regard to them prevailing amongst Occidentals is that they
are, without exception, as frail as they are charming. This
is an erroneous view, for, although the circumstances in
which they exercise their calling expose them to great
temptations, to which they frequently succumb, there is
absolutely nothing in the nature of their vocation render-
ing laxity of morals inevitable. There is no more reason
for a Gei-sha to be immoral than there is for an Occi-
dental public entertainer actress or concert-singer to
abandon the straight path of virtue.

In one phase, and a most important one, of the great
question of woman's place in the social fabric the men
of Japan have progressed far in an honest attempt to deal
with an evil, as old as the human race, that has baffled
social reformers throughout the West. The Japanese have
succeeded, for many generations, in stripping vice of its
most dangerous, repulsive, and degrading attributes, with-
out thereby increasing its prevalence. The "Social Evil,"
to use a cant term, exists in Japan under the vigilant care
and strict control of the State, wisely exercised in a manner
that safeguards the health of the whole community and the
virtue of chaste women, whilst raising their fallen sisters
to a level of comparative decenc} r that saves them from
utterly hopeless moral and physical degradation, and gives
them a chance of returning, some day, once again to a
virtuous life,

THE " YOSHI-WARA." 267

The existence of the unfortunate inmates of the Yoshi-
wara at Tokio, and of the similar quarters of provincial
cities, is sad enough, in any case, but especially in the
frequent one of a girl who has sold herself, for a term
of years, into the worst kind of slavery so as to obtain,
by the purchase money, sufficient funds to save her father
from bankruptcy. Yet, sad as is their lot, the Jo-ro
are in an infinitely better position than the Sad Sisterhood
in the West, whom the Occidental, with cruel irony,
calls " Gay Women," for the Japanese fallen women have
prospects, however faint, of social redemption, and are,
indeed, often fit for it, as with the exception of a few
who have become contaminated by association with the
scum of all nations at the Treaty Ports they are sober,
clean in their persons and their speech, and retain, in
spite of their immoral mode of life, a certain courtesy
and refinement of manner, a gentleness of disposition,
that enable them, if fortunate, to re-enter the ranks of
their respectable sisters without bearing too glaringly
the brand of their Past.

In Old Japan, a curious sort of hieratic glamour used
always to surround the most popular Oiran Sam a
"the Lady Prostitute," the respectful designation indi-
cates the feelings of the people and it still lingers in
the minds of the masses, a remarkable survival, perhaps,
of the intimate connection existing in past ages, in almost
all parts of the world, between women of easy virtue and
the celebration of religious rites. It would be difficult to
trace the connection between the Nautch-ga\s still attached
to Hindu temples, the Priestesses of Venus (and of other
cults) in classical antiquity, and the extraordinary respect
shown in Old Japan to the Oiran Sama ; especially as the
Mi-ko, "the Darlings of the Gods" the young priestesses,
clad in long, white robes over crimson silk Jiakama
(divided skirts) who perform sacred dances in some
Shin-to temples are virgins ; though, in the latter years
of the Empire, Rome had her Vestals at the same time

268 THE NEW FAR EAST.

as she had those Priestesses whose ministrations in the
temples of various imported Eastern deities necessitated
their being the very opposite.

Those travellers who have been witnesses of the strange
ceremony known as Hachi-mon-ji-ni aruki, the " Figure-
of-Eight-Walking," at one of the three seasons when tru
flowers are changed in the gardens of the Tokio Yoshi-
wara, have been impressed by the apparent solemnity of the
weird scene. The favoured Oiran Sama, selected to " view
the blossoms" as representatives of the whole frail sister-
hood, gorgeously attired, powdered and painted until their
faces look like masks, their heads ornamented with a pro-
fusion of enormously long hair-pins, their obi of costly
brocade tied in front in a huge bow,* are mounted on geta,
or wooden clogs, a foot high, and walk with slow and

* The sash-bow tied in front, and more than three hair-pins (kan-sashi) are
badges of their calling imposed on the prostitutes of Japan, formerly by old
sumptuary laws, and to this day by custom. This is a fact to be noted
by Occidental ladies, so that they may avoid the awkward mistakes
frequently made by them when appearing at Fancy Dress Balls in
Japanese costume, mistakes that provoke much sly merriment on the part
of spectators who know Japan. It has happened to me more than
once to be interrogated by some charming European lady, looking
perfectly bewitching in a beautiful kimono usually, however, crossed right
over left, and, therefore, in the manner of grave- clothes, every live Japanese
wearing the clothing crossed left side over right and a gorgeous obi, and
her pretty head encircled by a dozen hair-pins and ornaments : " My
dress is quite correct, is it not?" What could I say? I own that I took
refuge in ambiguity worthy of the Delphic Oracle, answering : " Certainly,
quite correct, but so much depends upon what particular type of Japanese
you intend to represent." "Ah! I knew I was correct. I copied all
the details of the head-dress from a lovely Japanese fan." I had thought
as much. The Japanese uchi-ua, or non-folding fan, of the cheap kind so
common in the Occident some grocers "give them away with a pound
of tea" is often decorated with a highly-coloured print, a fancy portrait
of some famous beauty of the Yoshi-uwa, the purely conventional face
surrounded by a halo of hair-pins. These portrait-fans, and the cheap,
brilliant colour-prints (nishiki-ye, "brocade pictures,") representing famous
Oiran Sama, are gradually being displaced in popular favour by photographs,
the Frail Sisterhood in Japan being as much alive to the utility of photo-
graphic advertisement as their Occidental congeners, with this difference,
that in the Far East where scant attire or even nudity is considered quite
permissible when it is necessary or convenient, but only then the portraits
offered publicly for sale are those of decently-clad females.

THE "JOSffl-WARA." 269

measured steps, through the admiring and respectful crowd.
The height of the clogs compels them to proceed very
deliberately, at the rate of about one step a minute,
placing one foot before the other in such a way that
the print of the clogs forms the Chinese character, in
use throughout the Far East, for " Eight " (A), in Japanese :
hachi.

The wonderfully-apparelled Oiran, moving like an
automaton on her high,, black pattens, her hands sup-
ported by an attendant on either side, her whitened face
absolutely impassive, gazes straight before her, with the
abstracted mien befitting a priestess of a once universal
cult. There is no direct evidence that the weird pro-
cession in which she is taking part had a religious origin,
but the probabilities all point that way, when we bear in
mind the extent to which phallic worship prevailed in Japan
until 1868, and the traces of it that still linger in remote
districts.

I have stated that vice is not increased by its regula-
tion by the State in Japan, nor is it thereby palliated in
the eyes of the self-respecting section of the community.
In Old Japan, the Samurai who visited the Yoshi-wara
concealed his features beneath a broad, pudding-basin-
shaped hat, or a cloth tied over his face. To this day, no
respectable Japanese would like to be seen passing through
its gates, unless in the company of a foreigner, to whom
he is showing the sights of the Metropolis. Whatever
we may think, individually, of the whole system, with
its strict police control and regular' medical inspection,
in one respect we must acknowledge its complete effi-
ciency : it succeeds in confining vice to one particular
district, where only those who deliberately seek it come
in contact with it, and it leaves the rest of the streets of
the great city clean and pure. Kanda is the most " rowdy "
Kit, or Ward, of Tokio, the " Quartier Latin " of the
Japanese capital, the home of students and the location
of clandestine drinking-shops and tea-houses of shady

270 THE NEW FAR EAST.

reputation. Its inhabitants are the typical Yedo-ko
literally, the Enfants de Yedo in fact, just as the true-
born Cockney, in the stiictest acceptation of the word,
must have first seen the light of day in a locality within
sound of Bow Bells, the Parisien de Paris within ear-shot
of the rumbling of the Boulevards, and the " echter
Weana," under the shadow of the Stefanskirche, so must
the genuine " Son of Tokio " be able to boast that :
" Kanda-no jo-sui-de ubu-yu-wo tsukatta" " He was
washed at birth in hot water from the upper waters of
Kanda." A Japanese lady might walk through the streets
of Kanda at any hour of the night without seeing anything
that could possibly offend the most sensitive feelings of
propriety. A man may stroll along Ginza, the Regent
Street of Tokio, at midnight without being once accosted.
For aught he could see, or hear, in nocturnal rambles
through the city, such a thing as vice might be absolutely
unknown in Tokio. Compare this with the state of
London streets between eleven o'clock at night and the
small hours of the morning 1 " They order these things
better in " Japan 1

Since 1880, a great and beneficial change has taken
place in a most important, probably the most important,
feature of the conjugal life of Japanese women of the
higher, and of the upper middle, classes the institution
of Concubinage, deprived, for the first time, of all legal
sanction by the Penal Code promulgated in that year. In
the years since the publication of that Code concubinage
has steadily fallen into disfavour. It was always con-
fined, in Japan, in China and in Korea, to the wealthy
classes, as, naturally, only the man who could afford to
keep another woman besides his wife would avail himself
of the privilege conferred by immemorial custom. Through-
out the Far East, concubinage had its origin in the desire
lor male issue. Should the wife and there has always
been, except in a very few cases amongst the highest
classes, in ancient times, only one legal wife fail to

CONCUBINAGE IN JAPAN. 2/1

present her husband with a son, he took, if his means
allowed it, a concubine, in the hope of securing the con-
tinuance of the family in the male -line. Numerous
instances are on record of wives, unable to bear male
offspring, actually requesting their husbands to take a
concubine, for the sake of perpetuating the family name
without having recourse to adoption, the course followed by
those son-less men too poor to keep up a plural domestic
establishment, or too fond of a wife to divorce her on a
flimsy pretext and marry another. Whatever is here stated
on the subject of concubinage and of divorce must be taken
to apply in the present tense to China and Korea, but
already in the past tense as regards a large proportion of
the population of Japan. The Japanese law of 1880
forbade the recognition in the Ko-seki, or Family Register,
of the son of a Mekake, or Sho, a concubine, as the heir,
failing male issue by the wife, and the raison d'etre of
the whole system thus fell to the ground.

But other causes than the desire of a son and heir had, in
the course of centuries, operated in favour of the custom.
The ineradicable polygamous instinct common, in varying
degrees, to men of all periods, suggested the addition of
concubines, beyond the requirements of family continuance,
to the household capable of supporting them. Hence,
concubinage dies hard in Japan, the polygamous instinct
being unaffected by the law depriving the custom of its
logical excuse, but it is dying for all that. The Mekakt
was always a kind of upper servant rather than a consort :
she waited on the wife, in cases where they lived under
the same roof only wealthy households had a separate
establishment, a sho-taku, for the concubine: she addressed
her respectfully as Oku Sama, "Madam," whilst she
herself was called only by her personal name, even by
her own son, should she be fortunate enough to have
borne the heir, whereas he would call the legal wife
his "Mother." To her son, the Mckake would stand in
the position occupied in many Occidental households by a

27-2 THE NEW FAR EAST.

faithful, valued nurse, who "brought up the young Master " ;
towards his father's wife, although united to her by no
ties of blood, he would observe the severe subjection of
Far Eastern filial piety. Now, the concubine has no legal
status in the family ; Japanese women, inspired by the
new thoughts instilled with the modern education, are not
slow to realise the fact, and it may safely be assumed that
the lapse of another generation will mark the virtual
extinction of the Sho, or Mekake.

There are not wanting keen Japanese observers of
social conditions who are in considerable doubt as to the
ultimate benefit to accrue to the nation from the dis-
establishment of the system of concubinage. They shake
their heads ominously and express the fear, based on their
observation of Occidental life, that the disappearance of
the Mekake as a recognised institution may lead to evils
of another kind. The husband, they say, may seek
variety in his sexual relations in other, and less open, and
therefore more pernicious, ways; he may lead a double
life, squandering his means on a clandestine establishment
with a mistress, perhaps raising an illegitimate family, and
thus creating a class, happily hitherto almost unknown in
Japan, of those unfortunate innocent beings who suffer so
cruelly in the West for the transgression of their parents;
he may frequent the Yoshi-wara, or he may cast lustful
eyes on his neighbour's wife or daughter. These are
grave forebodings, and those who utter them point to the
wrecked lives, so common in the Occident, in confirmation
of their apprehensions, for it is a peculiarity of the Far
Eastern observers of our social conditions that they are
not deluded by the conventional fictions we find so com-
forting, but probe deep into our national sores. At the
same time, they are, as a rule, just and acknowledge that
the family life of the majority of Occidentals is worthy
of imitation, but they absolutely reject the gratifying as-
sumption, to which the West clings, that this majority
is an overwhelmingly large one. They know, by the

DIVORCE IN JAPAN, 273

results of keen, unprejudiced observation how large the
minority is, and they hesitate before recommending the
adoption, en bloc, of a social system that allows, in then
opinion, of the existence of so much unhappiness, so
much undeserved suffering, so much hypocritical deceit.
"The Mekake," they say, "was, under the old dispensa-
tion, a respectable woman, her children had equal rights
with their fellow-creatures ; if we abolish concubinage
entirely, we lower her to the position of a clandestine
mistress, and her children will be condemned to the hard
lot of bastardy. Moreover, the husband, who, hitherto,
saw no wrong in his conduct, will, in future, visit his
mistress by stealth, become a moral coward, and practise
deceit towards his wife, who, for her part, will be tortured
by pangs of jealousy, suspicion, and hatred she never
knew before." To these warnings the ardent social re-
formers of Japan reply that husbands must learn to con-
form strictly to monogamy, the purest and best form of
matrimony, and the objectors return to the charge with
the assertion that continence is not given to every man,
that marriages are often unhappy from physical causes
entirely beyond control, and, finally, that counsels of per-
fection do not enter into the range of practical social
reform. So the battle of the opinions rages in the Far
East, but, I repeat, concubinage is doomed in Japan, and
so is the ancient, unjust system of divorce, strictly Chinese
in spirit, whereby the husband can dismiss the wife, at
least in theory, almost as readily as he can get rid of a
hired servant.

Here again, the reformers meet with opposition. The
objectors are ready to concede that the wife should be
allowed to free herself from a bad husband a right
hitherto practically denied to her but they are against
any restriction of the present wide facilities for divorce,
urging that no good can come of compelling people to
remain fettered together who should be united solely by
bonds of mutual esteem, of trust and affection.
s

274 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Slowly, very slowly, but surely, the Japanese woman
is approaching emancipation from the many disabilities
incidental to her inferior position. Her sisters in China
and in Korea have, as yet, no such bright prospect before
them. In both those Empires, the women of the working
classes lead a life very similar, in its conjugal aspects, to
that of the married female toilers in the West, with,
probably, the balance of happiness slightly in favour ot
the Far East, for, although cases of wife-beating are not
unknown, by any means, in China, the working man oi
Eastern Asia is, almost invariably, sober and, nearly
always, a kind husband and father. The working woman
of China, the patient, hardy, thrifty toiler, in baggy blue
cotton clothes, and the sturdy, hard-featured, strong, white-
clothed worker of Korea it is almost unnecessary to state
that the woman is meant, for the Korean man seldom
works really assiduously are estimable types of woman-
kind. Industrious, independent, excellent wives and
mothers, they live on a footing of companionship with
their husbands, just as the women of the Japanese labour-
ing classes do, and their active lives, free from the
trammels imposed on their social superiors by rigid customs
of hoary antiquity, approach very nearly to the Occidental
ideal of conjugal happiness in humble circumstances. It
is the women of the higher classes, in China and in
Korea, who are reduced to the condition of mere
automata, serving merely to propagate the family and to
minister to the pleasures of their husbands. Poor dressed-
up dolls, gaudily apparelled, painted and powdered, they
spend soulless lives in the seclusion of the women's apart-
ments, surrounded by the concubines with whom they
share their husbands' affection, and by a swarm of slave-
girls who are also at the disposal of the Lords and
Masters. I have written the words " soulless lives " ; on
second thoughts, I must qualify them, for no woman's
life can be considered spiritless that is illumined by
maternal joys, and, in most cases, the gladsome laughter

HEN-PECKING IN THE EAST. 275

of children sheds its sunshine into the monotonous gloom
of the Chinese, or Korean, lady's married life. And they
fully appreciate the blessing, for there are no more con-
scientious mothers, and none more tender, than these
women of the Far East.

As a rule, the ladies of China and of Korea take little,
or no interest in intellectual pursuits, their education
having been of a severely practical character, limited to
fitting them for the ordinary duties of domestic life and
of motherhood. But there are brilliant exceptions, in the
upper middle class as well as in higher circles. Some
women, generally the favourite daughters of Literati, have
received an advanced education and shine in poetry, in
elegant prose composition, and in the arts. Moreover,
however low the general average of female intellect may
be in China and Korea, owing to the severe repression
to which the women are subjected, there are among
them strong, masterful characters, and shrewd brains, as
in the case of the two women who h-ive played such an
important part in the history of their respective countries
in the 'nineties the Empress-Dowager of China, and the
late Queen of Korea, who was foully murdered in her own
Palace by a band of Korean and Japanese conspirators.
It seems passing strange that two women should have
exercised, of late years, such preponderating influence on
the destinies of nations that relegate their womankind to
such a low position in the social scheme. Close enquiry
into the domestic life of Far Eastern peoples reveals,
however, the fact that this position of subjection is often
more apparent than real. Hen-pecked husbands are not
uncommon in Eastern Asia, although their condition of
abject servitude is often concealed from outsiders by a
strict observance of the conventionalities of conjugal life.
The woman who shows her husband all the prescribed
marks of respect in the presence of strangers will, some-
times, when he is at her mercy in the privacy of her
apartments, let loose the torrent of invective that comes

276 THE NEW FAR EAST.

readily to Chinese, or Korean, lips, and the unfortunate
man will hide his diminished head. Many a stern Man-
darin, who sits in his tribunal, as awe-inspiring as Rhada-
manthus, and grimly throws out of a bowl, on to the floor
of the Court, the little slips of bamboo, each of which is
a voucher for five strokes, to be well and duly laid on
the unfortunate prisoner, lying on his face on the ground
before him, by the executioner armed with the thick, or
the thin, bamboo many a hectoring, dogmatic Graduate,
trembles at home in the presence of a little, sharp-tongued
woman wife or concubine. The law of the land per-
mitting the husband to divorce his wife for, amongst other
reasons, "a scolding tongue," it is strong testimony to the
patience of the hen-pecked men that they do not, as a
rule, avail themselves of the privilege.

The mind of the average Chinese woman is cramped
and confined within the narrow limits of the national pre-
judices and superstitions, just as her feet, small by nature,
are tortured into stumps rendering walking, unaided, a
very difficult matter. If she be of Tartar race, she
escapes this cruel and absurd custom ; even if of Chinese
blood, but of the working class a peasant, or a boat-
woman, for instance her feet are allowed to retain their
natural size and shape. One of the most hopeful signs of
impending reform in China is the formation, in 1897, of
a purely Chinese "Society for the Abolition of the Feet-
Compressing Custom" amongst the inhabitants of the
southern Province of Kwang-tung (" Canton "). The chief
obstacle in the Society's path is the fact that the com-
pressed feet are looked upon as a mark of "gentility."
Like the long finger-nails of the Mandarin, they imply :
" See how ' genteel ' I am ; 7 have never needed to do
any work ! " And when women once get it into their
heads that a certain custom, or fashion, is "the correct
thing," it needs a very powerful Society, energetically
conducted, to alter their opinion, especially if, as in this
case, the fashion has won the approval of poets, who have

WOMEN OF SCJUL. 277

composed well-known stanzas on the " Golden Lilies," the
tiny, compressed feet, on which the lady-love sways to
and fro "like the graceful willow."

Cramped at both ends, mentally, as to her brain,
physically, as to her feet, the Chinese lady cannot be
expected to have much knowledge of the world, and is,
naturally, deficient in the conversational powers that
require such knowledge. If her husband wants to sharpen
his wits by conversation with a brilliant female talker, he
must needs seek one of the sprightly inmates sprightly,
from a Chinese point of view of the "Flower Boats," or
of similar establishments on shore. The wife can talk to
him, shrewdly enough, about matters of the nursery, and
of domestic economy in general. On other subjects she
has no conversation. Her Korean sister is in the same
case ; although her feet are not deformed, she makes but
little use of them, being secluded within the boundaries
of her house and garden. One may travel from one end
of Korea to the other without ever seeing a native lady.
One may encounter, in the streets of Soul, women of the
middle class, out "shopping," or going to visit friends,
but one gets but a vague idea of their figures, and the
merest glimpse of their features ; as a rule, only a peep at
two bright dark eyes. The voluminous white skirt,
standing out stiffly from the body, which bears to it the
proportion of the clapper to a bell, begins at a waist
that is placed high up under the arm-pits ; it covers
baggy white trousers reaching to the ankles, as many as
three pairs being sometimes worn. The head and shoulders
are concealed under a sleeved gown, generally of a bright,
deep green, which is not used for its natural purpose,
but only as a hood and cape, much in the same way as
the London carman's boy throws his jacket over his head
in a sudden down-pour of rain. The folds of this gown
are held together in front of the face, leaving only the
eyes exposed, the sleeves hanging down on either side.
The traveller does not have much time to examine this

278 THE NEW FAR EAST.

curious costume, for, the moment its wearer sees him, she
bolts into the first house the door of which stands open,
to seek the sanctuary every Korean dwelling offers to a
woman in danger of meeting a man. For the casual
meeting of persons of opposite sexes is looked upon as
a grave peril amongst the higher and middle classes in
Korea, and to obviate it, as far as possible, and, at the
same time, to give the women an opportunity for exercise,
a strict curfew regulation enjoins or enjoined, for ancient
laws are repealed and re-enacted with astonishing rapidity
in New Korea that no male do venture out of doors
between the hours of 8 P.M. and sunrise, except on official
business, or to summon aid to a sick person's bedside,
so that the ladies may roam abroad without hesitation.
Woe betide the luckless Korean man who infringed this
regulation ; if he fell into the clutches of a police patrol
he would be soundly flogged for his audacity.

The working women of Korea are not restricted to the
hours of night for their walks abroad, nor need they
conceal their faces, prematurely seamed and hardened by
constant drudgery, under the gown worn as a hood.
They move about freely at all times, clad in loose white
trousers and full white skirt, with an apology for a jacket,
an exiguous garment, also of white cotton, that covers the
shoulders, but reaches only to the upper part of the
bosom, leaving the greater portion of the breasts exposed.
There is another class of Korean women who enjoy a
great amount of freedom in their movements the Ki-
saing (pronounced, nasally, Ki-s$ng), or dancing-girls, who
are the counterpart of the Gei-sha ,of Japan, but less re-
putable, as their calling is, almost invariably, supplemented
by prostitution. It is in their society the Korean men
seek the intellectual relaxation they cannot find in the
company of their worthy, but humdrum, wives. Through-
out the Far East, the men are often driven to the perilous
company of professional entertainers dangerous because
their fascinations often prove irresistible owing to the

THE FUTURE f 279

"goody-goody" dulness of their homes. It is the story
of classical antiquity all over again. The ladies of Athens,
and the Roman matrons, were most estimable women, with-
out doubt, exemplary wives and mothers, but their conversa-
tion was limited to home topics the price of provisions,
probably, or baby's new tooth, or the misdeeds of the
household slaves and they must have been singularly un-
interesting companions. So their husbands sought solace,
often for the mind only, in the brilliant society of the
Hetaira, who shone as much by their wit, and often by
their learning, as by their beauty.

The education of women in New Japan is fitting them
more and more to brighten home life intellectually, as
well as with the liglit of their domestic virtues, and there
is little room for doubt that, in the course of the coming
generation, the wives will be able to compete successfully
with the Gei-sha in the art of interesting and amusing
their husbands. Many of them already do so. In China,
the great majority of the women are still benighted, but
a beginning has already been made, although on a very
small scale, towards providing some of them with educa-
tion in the Occidental sense of the word. In Korea,
American and British Missionary efforts have already had
some effect in the same direction. A whole generation,
at least, must pass away before any appreciable results
can leaven the whole womankind of China and of Korea
with a higher conception of the part reserved for it in
the social fabric. Then the Women of the New Far East
will become more learned, more self-reliant, more capable
of holding their own in the wide world; more obedient
daughters, more dutiful wives, and more devoted mothers
they cannot possibly be.

280

CHAPTER VI.
THE ALMIGHTY DOLLAR.

THE interest in the Far East, now so keenly felt by
Occidentals, is based, to a great extent, on the magnitude
of the industrial, commercial and financial questions in-
volved. Not only have huge sums accumulated, in the
past, in trade with Eastern Asia, not only is the vast
importance of its commerce with the West constantly
increasing, but very weighty economic questions, affect-
ing all countries, await solution in those parts of the
world.

This may seem a sordid cause to which to attribute
the interest of the West in the affairs of the Far
East, but it is, nevertheless, the principal factor at work,
especially in the great industrial and commercial nations,
with which the " argumentum ad pocketum" increases
daily in force. Millions of Occidentals look to the New
Far East as the Land of Promise whence golden streams
are to flow into the coffers of Europe, of America and
Australia, in exchange for products that are becoming a
glut in the markets of those continents, and for the out-
put of industries that must find new outlets if they are
to live. The general impression seems to be that Occi-
dental commerce has in Eastern Asia a magnificent field,
the surface of which has hitherto barely been scratched,
that those Lands of the Dawn abound in resources beyond
the wildest dreams of the most sanguine imagination
that of the promoter of companies, or of the mining

"NO STATISTICS /" 281

expert, for instance and that the "teeming millions" of
the yellow races are eagerly awaiting the day that will
place the commodities "made in the Occident" within
their reach.

This impression requires to be considered, if we would
make sure of its accuracy, by the light of a knowledge
of the local conditions and, especially, of the character
of the peoples in question, rather than by the light of
statistics alone. Fellows of the Royal Statistical Society,
and others who expect serried columns of bewildering
figures in small print, are hereby warned off. I do not
intend to quote statistical returns, because those who
hanker after them can find them, duly tabulated, in the ex-
cellent, interesting, often even amusing, Reports on Trade
of Her Britannic Majesty's Diplomatic and Consular Repre-
sentatives issued by the Foreign Office at very moderate
prices, and to be obtained through any bookseller and
in the minutely detailed Returns published, in English, by
various Departments of the Japanese Government, and by
the Imperial Maritime Customs of China. In the case of
Japan, a valuable Resume Statistique de I' Empire du Japon
is also issued annually. I refrain from giving tables of
carefully marshalled figures for another reason also, and
a weighty one : the rapidity with which such statistics
pass out of date in the Far East, the region of commercial
and industrial surprises, and especially in Japan, where
trade and manufactures have acquired a habit of advanc-
ing, not by the slow stages to which we are accustomed
in the West, but by amazing "leaps and bounds." Re-
turns out of date are worse than no statistics at all, as
they are apt to be totally misleading, so I prefer to
convey such information as I have to give in general
terms, and to confine myself, as far as possible, to the
consideration of broad principles and ethnographical facts,
that will be as true five, ten or twenty years hence as
they are now of such racial characteristics as are likely
to undergo change, and of local conditions that will

282 THE NEW FAR EAS7.

probably be altered, pointing out the direction in which
the transformation will, most likely, be effected. I venture
to think such a course will be more profitable than long
rows of noughts, and many decimals, or than accurate
statement, to a Catty* of the fish-glue, or of the dried
mussels, exported from Ning-po in 1896, or, to a Yen's
value, of the kerosene landed at K5be in the first quarter
of 1898. One more word of warning to the Reader :
vitally important as the Silver Question is to Far Eastern
commerce, intimately as that great problem is bound up
with the question of the currency in China, I shall not
enter into any consideration of Bi-metallism, for or against,
"that way madness lies." Indeed, it would be pre-
mature to hazard an opinion on the subject at a time
when data are still lacking to prove who were right, those
who applauded Japan's adoption of the Gold Standard, in
1897, or the pessimists who predicted national ruin as
the ultimate result of the bold step.

This matter of the Japanese Gold Standard offers
an excellent opportunity of pointing out the tendency,
amongst Occidentals in general, to attach the greatest
importance to Far Eastern questions which are, no doubt,
of vast magnitude, but really secondary in comparison to
others receiving far less attention. The financial and
commercial world is greatly excited over the probability
of the Japanese being able, in the future, to pay their
debts in gold, or the eventuality of their being compelled
to return to payment in silver, but the great question
lies far deeper than this. It is, really, not a question
so much of the medium of payment, nor even of the
ability of the Japanese to pay in any medium, but of their
willingness to pay at all. In short, the honesty of the
Japanese is the great point on which the mind of the
Occident should be fully satisfied before any further
consideration of the prospects of extended commerce with
them can be profitably entered into. And their honesty

* \}^ Pound Avoirdupois, or 0.60453 Kilogramme.

THE UNSCRUPULOUS GO-BETWEEN. 283

in matters of commerce is not a foregone conclusion ; it has
been questioned by many who should be in a good position
to speak from experience. Almost every Occidental trading
in the Far East has decided views on the subject, and these
are, as a rule, unfavourable to the commercial morality of
the Japanese. The European and American merchants who
are established in the Treaty Ports of Japan are continually
uttering complaints, which find their way into Consular
Reports, of obligations neglected, debts unpaid, claims
unsatisfied, contracts unfulfilled, and judgments of the
Courts nullified by combinations of native Traders' Guilds
for the purpose of that very Occidental operation known
as "Boycotting." A certain amount of suspicion attaches
to these lamentations owing to their origin. They
proceed from people who have every reason to desire
that industrial and commercial circles in the West should
be deterred from direct dealing with the Japanese and,
thanks to the efforts of the native merchants, seconded
and encouraged by their Government, the tendency is
all in the direction of direct trading and what better
deterring agent could be found than the bogey of the
" dishonest Japanese trader " ? Moreover, the complaints
come from merchants who are not, as a rule, really
in direct touch with the Japanese mercantile classes,
but, almost invariably, deal with them through the inter-
mediary of a Banto, the Japanese equivalent of the
Chinese Comprador, the native employt who acts as a go-
between, and is not always as scrupulous as he should
be. He does not hesitate, at times, to manipulate his
employer's business with less regard for its success than
for sundry little speculations of his own, and sometimes
throws the blame of losses, without compunction, on the
shoulders of the Japanese factors, or retailers, to whom he
sells, or of the producers, or their agents, from whom he
buys. To this must be added the fact that the Occident
hears but one version of the state of commercial morality
in the Far East, that put forward by its own merchants,

284 THE NEW PAR EAST.

Little, or nothing, is known, in the West, of the many
heartless swindles perpetrated by Occidentals in Eastern
Asia in the days, not further back than the 'sixties, when
the yellow races were still as children in matters of inter-
national commerce, and in knowledge of the products of
Occidental industry. We seldom, if ever, hear of the
crazy steam-ships, the rickety machinery, the faulty rifles,
the unsound goods of all kinds that were sold, in those days,
at exorbitant prices, to buyers incapable, at the time, of
detecting the frauds. To this day, there must be instances
of unfair dealing on the part of some of the foreign mer-
chants, unless the Occidental mercantile class in the Far
East be entirely composed of absolutely blameless, high-
minded men in which case it would present a marked
contrast to every other commercial community in the
world but these instances are not paraded before our
eyes. The native trader, or producer, may suffer by them,
but he is, so far, practically inarticulate as regards venti-
lating his grievances before the Western public, whereas
the Occidental merchant in the Far East can, and does,
give vent to his indignation and his grumbling in the
columns of newspapers, and in the pages of magazines and
of Consular Reports.

Whilst carefully weighing these conditions, militating
against the absolute accuracy of the Western merchant's
sweeping condemnation of Japanese commercial methods,
it must be stated that there is, unfortunately, a solid basis
of truth under his exaggerated censure. There are Japanese
merchants, manufacturers, and bankers who rank as high
in morality, and in strict adherence to the fairest methods,
as any in the West, but they are, as yet, in a minority.
There is a valid reason for this lamentable fact in the
comparatively recent date of the raising of the Japanese
commercial man's status to the plane of respectability,
hardly attained by him in Old Japan. Until the Great
Change, in 1867-8, the Japanese nation, apart from the
outcast Eta and Hi-nin, was divided into four great classes :

SOCIAL DIVISIONS IN JAPAN. 285

Shi, the military, administrative, and literary class, Nd, the
agriculturists, Ko, the craftsmen, and, last and least, Sho,
the traders. Some of the trading class accumulated great
wealth, especially by lucky speculations in rice, and by
judicious banking for Dai-miyo, or feudal lords, but they
were accounted of the lowest class of citizens for all that.
A few succeeded, by dint ot munificent donations for
public purposes, in obtaining honours of some sort from
the Government of the Sho-gun, a way of acquiring rank
not unknown in the West, but the distinctions conferred did
not alter the fact that they belonged to the despised class
of traders again a parallel to Occidental conditions. It is
easy to understand how, in a nation of warriors, those
men who devoted themselves to commerce were looked
down upon, especially when it is remembered that even
in the British Isles, that owe their prosperity to commerce,
there are, to this day, thousands of families, often such
whose very name betrays them Mercers, Bakers, Taylors,
Glovers, Smythes, and so forth whose proud boast it is
that they "have never been in trade, you know."

There is but little self-respect in any class that is despised
by the bulk of its compatriots, and the traders of Old
Japan, placed beyond the pale of respectability, formed
no exception to the rule. A few great commercial families,
like that of Mitsui, established centuries ago, rose, by
honesty, ability, and accumulated wealth, above the level
of the general ruck of traders, but the majority never
rose, either in methods of business, or in popular esti-
mation, above the standing of the small shopkeeper of
the Occident. The Great Change brought an alteration
in the division of the people ; the four classes were
replaced by three : Kuwa-zoku, or Nobility (Princes,
equivalent to British Dukes, Marquesses, Earls, Vis-
counts, and Barons), Shi-zoku, or Gentry (the former
Samurai, or two-sworded class), and Hei-min, or Common
People. The last class included the farmers, large and
small, the artisans and the traders, thus, for the first time,

286 THE NEW FAR EAST.

lumped together under a common designation. The effect
of this change was not the lowering of the agriculturists
and the craftsmen to the status of the traders, but the
raising of these, as was intended, to a higher level. Not
only Shi-zoku, but even members of the aristocracy, did
not disdain to "go into trade," now that the old order of
things had given way to the new, and a marked improve-
ment in commercial aims, methods, and morality soon
became perceptible. The majority of these new recruits
to the ranks of commerce and finance, well-born and
often highly educated, naturally gravitated, and still do
so, towards the higher branches of money-making, towards
banking, insurance, ship-owning and shipbuilding, manu-
facturing, the exploitation of mines, the management of
railways, and wholesale export and import business con-
ducted on a large scale. It has thus come to pass that
the commercial world of New Japan is divided into two
classes : the great companies, representing that joint-
stock enterprise for which the Japanese have so rapidly
acquired a marked aptitude, and the first-rate private
firms, on the one hand, and the large number of manu-
facturers in a small way and petty traders, on the
other. Of the first class, it may be declared with assur-
ance that it displays quite as high a standard of integrity,
fully as much energy and perseverance, and as great a
spirit of enterprise, considering the obstacles to be sur-
mounted, as the corresponding class in the Occident. It
enjoys the further advantage that its members have been,
as a rule, carefully and practically trained for their work,
and have acquired a theoretical knowledge of the first
principles underlying all commercial operations that is
seldom found amongst Occidental men of business. There
is, of course, danger in this theoretical knowledge when it
is allowed, as is sometimes the case in Japan, to convert
business men into doctrinaires, riding their hobbies at the
fences of common-sense. Political Economy has nowhere
more ardent votaries than in Japan, in accordance with

THE PETTV TRADERS. 287

the curious rule, obtaining throughout the world, by which
the poorer nations supply the greater number of students
of " the Dismal Science," whereas the people who own the
greater part of the world's wealth hold it, and add to it,
without bestowing more than a passing thought on the
principles, first enunciated by a man of their own race,
that are supposed to govern the economics of the globe.

If the majority of Japanese commercial men were like
the members of the class just described, we should hear
but little complaint on the part of the Occidentals trading
in their midst. Unfortunately, the greater number belong
to the second category the petty traders, not always
without capital, for some of them are, for Japan, wealthy,
but almost always without any broad conception of busi-
ness, mere hucksters, taking a greater delight in a
momentary gain of a few Yen than in the undertaking
of a transaction likely to result in a steadily increasing
trade to the tune of thousands. If these petty traders
were to be classified according to Carlyle's division of
the English people, one ought, following the testimony of
the irate Occidental who deals with them, to place them
amongst the knaves, but this would be a grievous error.
Rogues some of them may be, and cunning rogues at
that, but the great majority are simply fools. In their
narrow-minded folly, they are bent on squeezing the
utmost amount of immediate profit out of a customer,
regardless of the fact that they are thereby losing the
chance of future steady and lucrative trade. They share
with the Dutch of former times the fault of

" Giving too little
And asking too much."

It is surprising that such quick-witted people as the
Japanese unquestionably are should not have recognised,
long ago, the futility of thus " killing the goose that lays
the golden eggs." And, verily, the majority of the
traders of Japan look upon the Occidental as a goose,

288 THE NEW PAR EAST.

else they would not impute to him such absolute im-
becility as is implied in many of the commercial trans-
actions they blandly propose to him. Fortunately, their
little schemes for plucking the foreigner are generally, as
the French say, " stitched with white thread," and the
too evident snare is spread in vain in sight of the wary
bird. Occas ; onaUy, however, the attempt succeeds ; the
Occidental is caught, either through his ignorance of the
local conditions, or because circumstances combine to place
him at the mercy of the Oriental schemer. Thereupon
great rejoicing ensues, and the attempt is repeated, need-
less to say, hardly ever with success, as the foreigner
"once bitten" is, to a certainty, "twice shy."

Nobody deplores this folly of the petty trader more
than the Japanese authorities themselves, and they are
making strenuous efforts to put a stop to it, by exhorta-
tion in the Reports of their Consular Officers, and by
providing an excellent commercial education, at small cost
to the students, for the training of a generation of mer-
chants of broader views. There is no better-organised,
no better-equipped institution of its kind in the world
than the Commercial High School in Tokio, where a
complete course of instruction, theoretical as well as
admirably practical, is given. In one large hall of this
School, that has counterparts in the chief commercial
cities of Japan, a number of bays, or recesses, are labelled
with the names of the principal mercantile centres of the
world, and in each of these a number of students, who
have been well grounded in theoretical knowledge, taking
the parts, respectively, of bankers, importers, exporters,
brokers, insurance agents, and shipping agents, carry on
an active, simulated international trade in strict accord-
ance with the business usages of the places at which they
are supposed to be dealing. The various steps of every
conceivable commercial transaction are accurately gone
through, from the comparison of samples, obtained from
the School Museum, to the giving and receipt of orders,

THE JAPANESE COMMERCIAL SCHOOLS. 289

the making out of invoices and bills of lading, of policies
of insurance and freight - notes, and to the drawing, and
sometimes the " protesting," of bills of exchange, even to
disputes as to quality and packing, giving rise to instruc-
tive correspondence in several languages, with the necessary
dictation, shorthand, and type-writing, and " code " tele-
grams. When will London, the commercial metropolis of
the world, have a Commercial School like that of Tokio,
or, indeed, a Commercial School of any kind worthy of
the name ?

The flourishing State Institutions that supply an excellent
commercial education in Japan should be the most effective
agencies for the purification and enlightenment of the class
of small merchants whose overreaching rapacity has been
described. Unfortunately, as fast as the students graduate
at these schools, they are absorbed into the staff of one or
other of the great banks, or companies, or important private
firms that need no reformation. The minor houses of busi-
ness, that most require their skilled supervision, offer no
inducements to tempt them, and they are seldom possessed
of sufficient capital to be able to establish themselves on
their own account. Thus the small fry of Japanese trade
continue to wallow in the mire of commercial ignorance
and short-sighted greed, and the Occidental trader, sooner
or later, suffers at their hands. He raises, in his wrath, a
hue and cry against all Japanese mercantile people indis-
criminatety, and the perfectly sound, honest, native firms
are made to bear, in the public opinion of the West, the
odium properly attaching only to the "shady" minor traders.
The mischief is deserving of the closest attention of the
Japanese themselves, for it increases daily in importance,
as the business relations with the Occident become closer
and more numerous, and the efforts of the Japanese to
establish direct trade with all parts of the world gain in
intensity. Of course, the Occidental merchant in Japan
could protect himself by resolutely declining to do business
with any native firms not of the highest standing, but this
T

290 THE NEW FAR EAST.

presupposes conditions that are seldom in existence an
intimate acquaintance with the reputation and character of
native traders, only to be obtained by direct intercourse
with them, without the intermediary of the Banto, and
necessitating a knowledge of the Japanese language very
rarely possessed by Occidental merchants.

As to the Western manufacturer, or merchant, at home,
he has not the safeguard his compeer in Japan might empto) 7 ,
had he the energy to do so, for the man in the Occident,
eager to sell his wares in Japan, is prone to enter into
business relations with Japanese firms without sufficiently
searching enquiry into their standing. Most of the great
Japanese houses have branches, or agencies, in the chief
commercial centres throughout the world. In dealing with
these the Occidental at home runs no risk. The danger
begins for him when he has executed an order, duly paid
foiJlrsi orders generally are from a Japanese company,
or firm, about which he knows nothing, or very little. How
is he to know that he will be incurring great chance of
loss by executing that tempting second, or third, order
received from the " Dorobo Kuwai-sha, Limited," of Osaka,
or from Messrs. Katari, Kanenaki & Co., of Yokohama,
who write such plausible letters in such quaint English ?
Well, there are Imperial Japanese Consulates in the West,
and from any of these trustworthy information as to the
probable genuineness of an order from Japan, and the
standing of the firm giving it, may be obtained. The Con-
sular Official giving the information will, naturally, not
undertake any responsibility regarding it, but he may safely
be trusted to do his utmost to safeguard the honour of
the national commerce by preventing transactions, as far
as lies in his power, that would, in his judgment, end in
loss of money to the foreigner, and of reputation to the
Japanese.

Time works wonders, and, in the course of years, we
may see a new generation of Japanese merchants in every
way worth}'- of the great commercial future that lies before

JAPANESE "TOUCHINESS" 291

their country. This desirable end will be attained,
partly by the spread of commercial education, partly by
combination amongst foreign merchants to resist any
questionable practices on the part of Japanese traders,
partly by an inevitable revolution in the foreign business
methods in the Far East no more "go-between," direct
dealing with the native merchants, and the study of the lan-
guage and the customs of the country but chiefly by
the efforts of those Japanese who are wise enough to
recognise the present evil. Unfortunately, many Japanese,
even amongst the most highly educated, still suffer from
the national morbid hyper-sensitiveness, the consequence
of centuries of insular seclusion, to such a degree that they
resent honest foreign criticism, however gently administered,
as an insult to their race. This " touchy " disposition often
leads them to be somewhat lukewarm in certain much-
needed reforms, simply because attention has been drawn
to them by foreign observers. The fact that the candid
friend is a foreigner makes the question, in their eyes,
a national one, to be regarded not, as it shoud be, in
the light of true patriotism ready to accept disinterested
criticism and advice from any quarter, and to give it due
consideration for the national welfare but with a spirit
of wrong-headed "Chauvinism," rejecting censure and
counsel simply because they come from a foreign source.
I am well aware that several of my statements in these
pages will prove anything but pleasant reading to some
of my Japanese friends. A moment's reflection will
convince them that a plain statement of the truth about
their country is a far better way of serving its interests
than the fulsome, indiscriminate adulation that has been
lavished, from some quarters, on everything Japanese.
They know me too well to question my love for their
nation my whole life bears witness to it and I venture
to think that the greatest proof thereof I can give is
the attempt to furnish the Occident with an impartial
account of Japanese virtues and defects, in the hope that

292 THE NEW FAR EAST.

the latter may be remedied. No nation is perfect ;
strange as it may seem to some of my Readers, even the
British nation is not without its faults. Foreign criticism
is apt to be galling, but the Japanese themselves have a
proverb of which I would remind them : " Riyo-yaku
kuchi-ni nigashi" "the best medicine is bitter in
the mouth."

The strictures I have passed on the petty traders of
Japan must not be held to apply to all of them indis-
criminately, but chiefly to a large number of those who
enter into business relations with Occidentals, either in
Japan, through the Banto, or directly with firms in the
West. The majority of the retail traders, the shop-
keepers and small producers, are good, honest, marvellously
industrious people, content with a small margin of profit.
Their wares are often sold in Kuwan-koba, or bazaars,
at absolutely fixed prices, " every article marked in plain
figures," and the same excellent system is being gradually
adopted in some of the principal shops in Tokio and in
some of the larger provincial towns. In the other retail
establishments throughout the country the immemorial
Oriental custom of bargaining still flourishes, every trans-
action occupying an unconscionable time, to the accom-
paniment not, as in China, of loud protestations and
violent gesticulation, but of much bowing, of expressions
of deep regret at inability to offer, or to accept, a
certain sum, and of numerous cups of tea and pipes of
tobacco. It is when the small trader launches out into
international transactions that his cupidity appears to
become unduly excited. He is brought face to face with
the prospect of sudden immoderate gain, for, in his
eyes, every foreigner seems a very Croesus an impres-
sion strengthened by the lavish manner in which some
American travellers fling their money about and he
loses his head and becomes foolishly rapacious. Unless
the foreigner be wary, he may be made to pay dearly
for the mischief wrought by other Occidentals who have

THE MANCHESTER OF JAPAN. 293

run to extremes, in former transactions, either by un-
thinking compliance with first demands of an extravagant
nature, or by attempts to beat down the price below a
fair limit, so as to show that they are " not going to be
taken in" by the vendor, whom they have exasperated
by the process, not unknown in London and Paris shops
much frequented by ladies, of causing the greater part of
the stock to be displayed before them and ultimately
purchasing a mere trifle.

The most powerful lever in the hands of the Japanese
who would regenerate their trading class is the feeling of
national honour, so highly developed in every other direc-
tion amongst their countrymen. There is an expression,
current in Japanese commercial circles, that has found
its way into the language of the people at large, de-
scribing any disgraceful action as likely to noren-ni kakari,
"to hang to the curtain," that is drawn, at times, before
the front of a Japanese shop, and bears the name and
trade-mark of the firm in other words, likely to be a
blot on the scutcheon. Let the Japanese once thoroughly
understand that unfair commercial methods, excessive greed,
and failure to meet engagements, will inevitably tarnish
not only the sign-board of the peccant firm, but the
glory of the national flag, and public opinion will
brand the transgressors, and will establish and maintain
a standard of commercial morality as high as any in
the world.

The importance of this subject will be readily appre-
ciated when the phenomenal strides are considered by
which Japan is progressing towards the status of a great
industrial country, selling its manufactures far beyond its
borders. Osaka, always a busy commercial centre since
the great Regent Hideyoshi, commonly known as the
Taiko Santa, made it the seat of his government, in A.D.
1583, bids fair soon to deserve the name, already applied
to it, of "the Manchester of Japan." Hundreds of tall
chimneys stand hard by its many canals, belching forth

294 THE NEW PAR EAST.

clouds of black smoke to disfigure the fair surroundings,
and to gladden the hearts of Japanese holders of shares
in cotton-mills earning, on an average, dividends of twelve
per cent. When the good Emperor Nintoku, who is said
to have reigned from A.D. 313 to 399, had, in the kind-
ness of his heart, remitted all taxation for the space of
three years, to lighten the burdens of his impoverished
people, the Civil List was reduced to such a low ebb
that the rain leaked through the roof of his Palace at
Naniwa, the modern Osaka, and the sovereign and his
consort went about in wofully shabby raiment. So out-at-
elbows did the whole Imperial Court appear, that the
farmers, beginning to prosper in the absence of taxation,
respectfully offered voluntary contributions, which the
Emperor declined with thanks. At last the Empress,
who had outdone all records of feminine self-sacrifice by
actually wearing the same dress for three years in suc-
cession, could bear the strain of Imperial penury no
longer, and approached the Emperor on the subject, not
at the hour of curtain-lectures, but at a moment equally
propitious, in the West, for the discussion of domestic
economy, and the suggestion of new gowns and other
urgent necessities at breakfast-time. The Emperor led
her on to the leaky Palace roof and, by way of reply
to her representations, pointed to the columns of smoke
peacefully ascending from the chimneys of his contented
subjects all over the countryside. Then, being an early
Japanese Emperor, Nintoku broke into poetry, and com-
posed the following lines, sung to this day by every
Japanese man, woman and child, who still bless the name
of the good Emperor :

" Takaki ya-ni
Noborite mireba
Kemuri tatsu ;
Tami-no kamado-wa
Nigiwai-ni kcri."

Which, being interpreted, means : " Having ascended a

A BENEVOLENT EMPEROR. 295

high place and looking around, lo ! the smoke is rising ;
the kitchen-hearths of the people are busy." The Sage
Emperor, as he is called, was happy. Like gallant
Henry IV. of France, who wanted every family in his
kingdom to have " a fowl in the pot," Nintoku gauged
the prosperity of his subjects by the state of their
larders. But the Empress refused to be comforted by
the Sovereign's verse. To his assurance that they were
now prosperous, and that there could be nothing to grieve
for, she replied : " What dost thou mean by prosperity ? "
The Emperor answered, saying : " It is, doubtless, when
the smoke fills the land, and the people freely attain to
wealth." His Consort retorted, with truly feminine per-
sistency, by again calling attention to the holes in the
dilapidated roof, through which the rain dripped on to
the Imperial bed -quilts. The courtiers caught it in
troughs, and were obliged constantly to shift their sleep-
ing-places so as to find a dry spot. At its best, she said,
the Palace had always been a mere barn, unplastered,
with rough pillars and rafters, and untrimmed thatch,
owing to her husband's desire "a fad," we may be sure
she called it to dispense with the forced labour, usual
in the erection of Palaces in those times, as he was un-
willing to call the peasants away from their fields.
Although neither the Kojiki nor the Nihongi mention
the fact, we may assume that the Empress ended with
a renewed appeal for an inspection of her three-year-old
gown, "absolutely coming to pieces." "Call you this
prosperity, forsooth ? " she queried. The Emperor gravely
answered : " When Heaven sets up a Prince in authority,
it is for the sake of the People. The Prince must, there-
fore, make the People his first care. For this reason the
wise sovereigns of antiquity cast the responsibility on
themselves if a single one amongst their subjects was
cold and starving. The People's poverty is none other
than Our poverty ; there is no such thing as the People's
being prosperous and yet the Ruler in poverty." And

296 THE NEW FAR EAST.

the Emperor summed up his argument in words tersely
rendered "by Sir Edwin Arnold in his charming verses
"The Emperor's Breakfast":

"Thou and I

Have part in all the poor folk's health,
The People's weal makes the King's wealth."*

Great must be the joy of good Emperor Nintoku's ghost
if it revisits the land he made happy by his benevolent rule !
For smoke curls up in dense clouds from his good City of
Naniw r a, now the thriving, bustling Osaka, pouring forth
out of hundreds of chimneys higher by many yards, than
the upper gallery of his Palace of Takatsu-no-Miya, from
which he had watched the blue spirals wafted up from the
cooking-hearths of his happy subjects, and the modern smoke
means the production of wealth undreamt of in his day.
The multitude of spindles in the great mills of Osaka are
spinning Indian cotton into yarn of the coarser " counts/'
to be used in the country, or exported, either as yarn, or
woven into cheap fabrics, to China and to Korea. When
the canal is cut, as it assuredly will be, through the isthmus
between North and South America, the Japanese mills will
be able to obtain, rapidly and cheaply, supplies of the " long-
staple" Sea Island cotton of the Mississippi estuary, and
will spin and weave the finer "counts" in the production
of which Lancashire still rules supreme. As it is, the
Japanese cotton industry, like all other manufactures by
steam power in Japan, a thing of yesterday's creation,
flourishes apace. What is needed for the development of
this, as of Japan's other industries, of her mineral wealth
and her carrying trade, is the one thing the country cannot
supply in sufficient quantity Capital, Japan is not a rich
country in the sense of accumulated wealth, nor is she so
very poor as many Occidentals have described her. Other-

* Sir Edwin Arnold, " The Emperor's Breakfast," in Part I. of Pictures
of Ancient Japanese Histoiy, by T. H. Asso, Chief Inspector of Machinery,
Imperial Japanese Navy. Tokio, Maruya & Co., 1890.

FIELDS FOR INVESTMENT. 297

wise she could not have waged the costly war with China,
as she did, without borrowing a single cent beyond her
frontiers. But for the due development of her natural
resources, of the abundant wealth latent in her new posses-
sion, Formosa, and for the most profitable employment of
her sons' great technical aptitude, and of the patient, skilful
labour of her masses, she must look to foreign financial
aid. No more promising field could be found for the in-
vestment of Occidental capital ; the directions in which
it could profitably, and safely, be employed are innumer-
able.

Safety, that is the important consideration in the matter
of the investment of Western capital in Japanese enterprises,
and it is the one point on which the Occidental mind is
not at ease. With curious perverseness, the great bulk of
Occidental capitalists and investors allow their judgment to
be warped by the doubts and fears of the very people
who, claiming to be experts, were so wofully wrong in
their forecast of the result of the war with China that
they ought to hide their diminished heads in confusion. It
is these prophets of evil who discourage the would-be in-
vestor by their vague hints at the " serious crisis " that,
according to them, seems to be the normal condition of
Japanese affairs. It is they who talk, with bated breath,
of the possibility of a revolution that might sweep away,
in its blind fury, every vestige of the new civilisation of
Japan, and who even, in some cases, attribute nefarious
designs, and the power to execute them, in certain circum-
stances, to the members of the old ex-feudal nobility, pro-
bably the quietest and most inoffensive body of aristocrats
in the world. These doubters are of the kind who pre-
dicted victory for the rebel forces in SAIGO Takamori's
great insurrection in Satsuma, in 1877, and were, as usual,
in error. In spite of the falsification of all their prophecies
of disaster, they continue to shake their heads ominously
at every kaleidoscopic change in the composition of the
Japanese Cabinet, at the resignations, and threats of

298 THE NEW PAR EAST.

resignation, that fill such a large space in the career
of high Japanese officials, at every petty squabble in
the Lower House, at each one of the " deadlocks," the
blind alleys into which the Parliament at Tokio so often
blunders.

The Occidental capitalist notes the opinions of these
"experts," decides to refrain from risking his money in a
country offering, apparently, so little security and invests
his hundreds of thousands in gold-mining ventures that are
often mere gambling, or in one of the rotten Republics
that parody civilisation in Central and South America, or,
perchance, in one of the heavily over-capitalised, strenuously
"boomed" companies floated, at home, by wily promoters
and their mercenaries, the "guinea-pig" peers. The small
investors follow the capitalist's lead, with great danger to
themselves, for they are, as a rule, unaware that the rich
man does not intend, as they do, to leave his money per-
manently at the disposal of the particular enterprise it
suits him, for the time being, to support. With touching
confidence they take their cue from the men in whose
experienced hands they are mere counters in the financial
game ; the capitalists look with scant favour on the in-
vestment of their monies in Japanese undertakings, and the
small fry are not likely to take a different view. Yet the
day is coming when foreign capital will flow into Japan,
for the shrewd men of business of the West will inevitably
penetrate behind the screen of misrepresentation and mis-
understanding erected by interested, or ignorant, persons ;
they will see the magic figures 12, 15, even 20, per cent.
shining alluringly on the horizon, and they may be trusted
to go in search of the tempting profits with an earnestness
and a vigour recalling the Quest of the Holy Grail. They
will have to be prepared to accept Japanese co-operation
in their enterprises, the natives of the Island Empire being
haunted by visions of future subjection in that "Bondage
to the Bondholder " that has played such an important
part in the history of modern Egypt, and determined not

PROHIBITIVE "SAFEGUARDS." 299

to wear the golden chains of financial servitude. It is a
laudable resolve, but it leads the Japanese to extremes
of distrust of foreigners. It is difficult to conceive how a
nation so acute as the Japanese fail to see that their ill-
concealed fear of foreign domination through close financial
and commercial intercourse must inevitably lower their
prestige in the eyes of the world. They are never tired
of repeating that they are ready to welcome foreign capital,
but when they are requested to remove some of the restric-
tions under which its employment would be circumscribed
they reply that it cannot be done ; they must surround
themselves with all manner of safeguards, lest they be
reduced to the servile condition of the Egyptians toujours
the Egyptians 1 whose country is managed for them, admir-
ably managed, it is true, but none the less managed by
aliens. The Japanese who express this view, and they
are in an overwhelming majority, do not understand that,
by their argument, they are placing themselves on the same
moral and intellectual plane as the Fellahin of Egypt, a
parallel not very flattering to the self-esteem of a proud
nation.

Sooner or later, but, probably, ere long, the Japanese,
taught in the wholesome school of financial necessity,
will abandon their absurdly exaggerated fear of Occidental
absorption " by force of capital," and will admit the foreign
investor to a share in the proprietorship, and, consequently,
in the management of the numerous profitable undertak-
ings requiring capital from abroad. Legislation to this
end is being framed by some of Japan's wisest minds ; it
will rest with her ablest, strongest statesmen to get it
passed in a lucid interval of her Parliamentary debates,
and to enforce it in the face of much brawling opposition
by cheap "patriots" and much argument by timorous
Conservatives of the old school. On one point the
Japanese ultra-national spirit may be expected to hold
out for a very long time : the law forbidding the owning
of land by aliens. The great difficulty in the way of the

300 THE NEW FAR EAST.

removal of this serious disability is the Japanese prin-
ciple that the ownership of the land is vested in the
Emperor, as representing the nation, but this is mere
theory, as the actual holders of the soil, especially the
peasants, look upon the acres cultivated by their fore-
fathers for generations, and for which they pay taxes, as
absolutely their own. It would be a bold Government
indeed that attempted to act on the assumption of
national ownership, and to take the peasant-farmer's land
from him. The fact that aliens may not own land would
seem, primd facie, to oppose an almost insurmountable
obstacle to the investment of foreign capital on a large
scale, but those behind the scenes in matters Japanese
know that it is as easy to run a jin-riki-sha through a
Japanese law as to drive the proverbial ''coach-and-four
through a British Act of Parliament, and it is an open
secret that very valuable land is really owned by various
foreigners in the names of Japanese " men of straw." An
experienced Japanese lawyer, preferably one who has
been called to the English bar they are, by this time,
fairly numerous will, for an appropriate fee, devise the
necessary safeguards for the interests of any Occidentals
seriously contemplating investments in Japan, and several
of the best Banks in the Empire are prepared to do
the same, all restrictive legislation and Treaties notwith-
standing.

As to the best form the investment of foreign capital
should take, that can only be ascertained by careful
enquiries conducted, on the spot, by properly qualified
investigators, who should possess an intimate acquaintance
with the country and the people, and, especially, a prac-
tical knowledge of the language. These qualifications
apply equally to investigators into the commercial, in-
dustrial and financial possibilities awaiting Occidental
enterprise in China and Korea. Here Britons and
Americans are at once confronted with the unpleasant fact
that Germans, Frenchmen, Russians, Dutchmen, Italians!

A JAPANESE ACHIEVEMENT. 301

and even Austrians and Hungarians, are far better
equipped for the purpose of fruitful investigation, and of
the ultimate commercial struggle, not only by their superior
technical training, by the habits of methodical work and
discipline acquired in their time of military, or naval, ser-
vice, and by their natural capacity for adapting themselves
to local conditions and native customs, but by the excel-
lent facilities for acquiring the languages of the Far East
provided by their respective Governments. In the English-
speaking countries, whose Far Eastern interests outweigh
by far those of all other nations, it is much easier to
acquire a knowledge of Syriac or of Chaldee than of
Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Almost every British, or
American, school-child can locate the Brook Kedron not
one in a hundred thousand knows that the Sumida-gawa
flows through Tokio.

Although local investigation is absolutely necessary, two
or three of the most important modes of remunerative em-
ployment for foreign capital in Japan are at once apparent.
The fertile Island of Formosa would well repay the efforts
of the planter of tropical, and sub-tropical, produce. In
Japan itself, the manufacture of machinery, of machine-tools,
and of chemical products would, undoubtedly, prove fairly
remunerative, textile manufactures have proved lucrative,
the railways are earning satisfactory dividends, the employ-
ment of electric power for many purposes has reached a
high degree of development, and the enonnous extent of
coast-line offers, in its numerous bays and inlets, remarkable
facilities for the establishment of shipbuilding yards. At a
meeting of the Japan Society, held on the 8th of May,
1895, in the Discussion on the excellent Paper on "Japanese
Shipping," by Francis Elgar, LL.D., F.R.S., late Director
of Dockyards at the British Admiralty, a member of the
Society's Council, it was stated by Mr. Martell, the Chief
Surveyor to Lloyd's Register, that a ship of three thousand
tons could be built, and well built, in Japan for three
thousand pounds sterling less a pound sterling a ton

302 THE NEW PAR EAST.

than in any other country, although the estimate included
the cost of steel plates imported from England, and of the
salary of a British engineer to superintend the work.* Since
Mr. Martell's statement, the ship has been built at the
great saving he indicated. Shipbuilding and ship-owning
are amongst the most important enterprises of the present
and of the future in Japan, a country in every way adapted,
by its geographical position, its coast-line, its natural pro-
ducts, and the aptitudes of its population, to develop a
great carrying trade in the Pacific, and to extend it to
other seas. The great "Japan Mail Steamship Company"
(Nippon Yu-scn Kuwaishd) already owns one of the largest
fleets in the world. The mines of the Japanese Empire,
producing excellent coal, the best copper in the world, and
many other minerals, including gold, will, certainly, be
worked to much greater advantage when Occidental capital
facilitates more scientific prospecting, the employment of
the best machinery and modes of treating the ores, and
the improvement of means of communication.

If Japan and its dependencies offer a vast field for
Occidental enterprise, if Korea, with its fertile soil, its
forests, and especially its undoubted mineral wealth, awaits
the vivifying influence of foreign capital, how much greater
is the prospect of remunerative investment offered by the
huge Empire of China 1 " Prospect " is the right word, for
we must look far ahead for the time when the Middle
Empire will absorb millions of Occidental capital and return
an annual- harvest of thumping dividends. This is not the
view taken by the public, who, apparently, anticipate that
Western enterprise, once it has obtained a footing in the
interior of China, will find that mysterious region a perfect
commercial Eldorado. Those who hold this comforting
belief should moderate their sanguine expectations ; their
children may live to see them realised. Undoubtedly, a
great deal of money will be made in China, or in supplying

* Cf. " Transactions and Proceedings of the Japan Society," Vol. III., Part V.,
London, Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., Limited, 1897. (Illustrated.)

CHINESE " CONCESSIONS." 303

the wants of Occidental undertakings in that country, within
the first quarter of the twentieth century, but, unless the
unforeseen happens in politics, a great part of such wealth
will be merely transferred from one set of Occidental pockets
to another, from shareholders, in the first instance, to
" Syndicates," and, afterwards, from shareholders to con-
tractors and employes.

Whilst I am writing these pages, enquiries, written and
verbal, pour in upon me, from all sides, as to the value,
in my opinion, of this or that " Concession," or the prospects
of this or that "Syndicate." To all I make answer: "The
Concession in question is worth just as much as the paper
on which it is written, plus the market value of Chinese
official autographs, and the price the document might fetch
as a curiosity, or it may be worth more millions than even
the sanguine promoters of the ' Syndicate ' have estimated
in their most hopeful forecast." With this oracular utter-
ance, I light another cigarette by means of a spill twisted
out of a strip of newspaper, containing the latest telegrams
anent "The Far Eastern Crisis," all bearing, directly or
indirectly, on the prospects of various " Concessions," and I
return to the writing of this book. But the enquirers are
not satisfied ; they return to the charge, and clamour to know
what mystery lurks in that potent " or." And I explain that
the great "Concession" is to be appraised just according
to the pressure that its holders can bring to bear on the
Chinese Government to keep it to the strict fulfilment of
its engagements. In other words, the value of the " Con-
cession" depends on the strength and energy, and on the
willingness to exert them in support of the enterprise, of
the Government of the State whose subjects hold it. That
Government must be prepared, if the Concession is to have
any real value, to enforce its fulfilment " even at the cost of
war " and war not with China alone, but with the European
Power, or combination of Powers, that would certainly back
up China in her resistance moreover, it must be ready to
undertake, or at least to superintend and protect, the

304 THE NEW FAR EAST.

reform of Chinese methods of administration, without
which any Occidental undertaking must prove abortive
and disastrous.

The crux of the matter is the difficulty of discovering
the most potent factors in the Government of China, and
the best means of coercing them into compliance with the
terms of the " Concession," and into honest administrative
methods. For coercion will have to be employed before
thousands of officials will give up a system that enriches
them. A few are honest men, sincerely anxious to
eradicate the cancer of official corruption that is eating
up the vitals of the Empire, but they are powerless
against the vast majority, who thrive on ill-gotten
gains. The support, vi et armis, of the honest few
against the rascally majority of their colleagues must be
the first task of any Power that would ensure for its
subjects the enjoyment of the fruits of the " Concessions "
they have obtained.

I have devoted so much space, in former pages of
this Chapter, to the consideration of commercial conditions
in New Japan because, in that country, foreign capital
may be invested with full confidence in the stability of
the Empire, and in the continuance of the nation in the
path of social progress and economic development. The
word " stability " used in connection with modern Japanese
institutions may cause those to smile who note the
"quick-change acts" continually performed by the states-
men of the Island Empire, the rapid shifting of the
political scenes, the recurring alterations in the names of
public Departments and in the titles of officials, the hot
and cold fits that come over the feverish young Parlia-
ment, so young that it is, naturally, subject to all the
ailments of childhood. But all these phenomena are mere
bubbles on the surface of the molten mass that is gradually
cooling down into a sound, solid, homogeneous whole.
Who can tell who the real rulers of Japan are ? Cer-
tainly they are not the clever, energetic men who form

THE IMPERIAL WILL IN JAPAN. 305

the Administration. They may decide in matters of detail,
often invested with undue importance, not only by foreign
observers, but by the people themselves. Behind the
administrators is an unseen controlling power that shows
its supreme wisdom by intervening only in moments of
grave national import, an irresistible, intangible, unknown
influence that steps in at the right instant to check
dangerous impulses, to guide the national policy into safe
channels, and to bend the popular feeling into concurrence
with the Imperial Will that gives this beneficent force its
mighty sanction. As long as this guiding influence pre-
sides over the destinies of Japan, no serious harm can
endanger the nation's true welfare, from without or from
within, the stability of the Empire is assured, and the
Current of progress must continue to flow.

Far different is the state of unfortunate China, a prey
to internal dissensions, arising through the sufferings of
an oppressed people, and the squabbles and intrigues of
an official class united, almost to a man, in one respect
only their determination to enrich themselves by every
kind of extortion and peculation. Until that class is
driven from office and replaced by honest, capable adminis-
trators, dealing justly with the people, no Occidental
enterprise can prosper within the borders of the huge
Empire. Until that great regeneration takes place, all
schemes for material improvements are but the building
of castles in the air, all talk of profitable railways from
" Something - king " to " Somewhere - fu " is but mere
twaddle. Let the holders of brilliant " Concessions " re-
member by what means those precious documents were
obtained, and they will be able to gauge the integrity of
the officials at whose mercy their railways and their
mines would be worked. It cannot be too often repeated
that in the early reform of the Government of China
reform drastic, unhesitating, complete lies the only hope
of the realisation of the golden dreams of those who
would derive profit from the development of China. The
u

306 THE NEW FAR EAST.

task is beyond the power of private, or corporate, initia-
tive. A State alone, and a mighty one, can undertake the
tremendous task, and it can only hope to succeed com-
pletely by calling in the co-operation of powerful allies.
The aim is worthy of the effort. Those whose strong
endeavour is crowned with success will deservedly reap
the glory and abundance of Almighty Dollars.

307

CHAPTER VII.
FIGHTING POWER.

FERVENTLY as we may hope that the problems of the
Far East will be solved by peaceful means, there seems
but a faint prospect of these pious aspirations being
fulfilled. The New Far East was born amidst the thunder
of battle ; it appears but too probable that a great deal or
" villainous saltpetre " will be burnt before the countries
of Eastern Asia subside into conditions offering reason-
able guarantees of prolonged peace. And it is likely that
the, almost inevitable, struggle will involve not only
purely Asiatic Empires, but the great Occidental Powers
as well, at all events to the extent of that "unofficial
warfare" that has been so much in vogue, all over the
world, in the latter half of the nineteenth century a
kind of "war 'on the cheap'" which, like most things
attempted on that plan, comes very expensive in the
long run.

A glance at a map, showing the enormous coast-
line of China, the Korean peninsula, and the islands and
islets, nearly two thousand in number, that compose the
Japanese Empire, makes it at once evident that the issue
of any conflict in the Far East must depend on Sea
Power. In Eastern Asia, as in every other part of the
world, the country with a great extent of sea-board is
always at the mercy of any power stronger at sea.
The Japanese understood this great fact from the
very inception of their modern navy ; Captain Mahan,

3 o8 THE NEW PAR EAST.

U.S.N., had no more eager students of his great work on
Sea Power than the keen sailors of Japan, who took his
axioms to heart so earnestly that the admirably-planned
combined naval and military strategy which gave them the
victory over China might serve as a series of " Practical
Exercises " in illustration of the American naval author's
theories. China, too, heard Mahan's message to the
maritime powers and made efforts, very considerable ones
for her, to profit by the warning, but she went about it
in the bad old Chinese way, and the end of the nine-
teenth century finds her practically without a navy, whilst
Japan occupies the position of the paramount naval
power in Eastern Asia. As to Korea, her "Imperial
Navy" consisted, after the war between Japan and
China, of a Naval Academy without teaching staff or
students before the war there had been an attempt,
under American influence, to organise such an institution
and of three Admirals, of the Right Wing, Left Wing,
and Centre respectively, who commanded nothing at all,
the few small steamships flying the Korean flag being, in
reality, cargo and passenger-boats. Each Province has,
traditionally, a fleet for the protection of its coast, the
Capital having two squadrons allotted to it, but these
Armadas do not belong to the category of " fleets in
being." They exist only in the imagination of the
inventive Yangban who makes out the pay-sheet for the
remuneration of the three Admirals, who are subject to
the supreme control of the President of the Board of War.
Judging from the system in vogue, from time immemorial,
in the Korean army, it may be assumed that these pay-
sheets include the names of the whole complement of
every ship in the various non-existent squadrons. They
may be skeleton crews of phantom ships, but a dead
Korean, or even one who never lived, is often counted on
the " effective strength " in the matter of pay, only his
Commanding Officer draws it for him, to avoid confusion
and mistakes.

"MAINLY A QUESTION OF COAL:' 309

In estimating the reasons that place Japan in the
foremost rank as a naval power in the Northern Pacific,
other data besides the number and fighting-value of her
ships, and the efficiency of their officers and crews, must
be taken into consideration. The organisation for war of
Japan's naval forces is as nearly perfect as any system,
planned with the clearest foresight, and carried out with
minute thoroughness, can be ; the conflict with China put
it to a severe test, from which it emerged triumphantly.
To this perfection in organisation must be added the
possession of several completely-equipped dockyards and
arsenals in well-fortified positions of great natural
strength and of the sinews of naval warfare coal. Of
this essential munition of war Japan possesses an abundant
supply, of excellent quality, her principal mines being
most conveniently situated, on the seaboard, thus facili-
tating rapid coaling. When, on the 3oth December, 1897,
I was "interviewed" on Far Eastern questions by a
representative of Reuter's ubiquitous Telegram Agency, I
laid great stress on the vital importance of this point,
and many of the newspapers that published the " Inter-
view" the next morning not without misgivings, I dare
say, as it contained the apparently incredible statement,
from my lips, that Britain was likely to occupy Wei-hai-
wei, on its evacuation by the Japanese, who would be
found to have acted merely as a "warming-pan" for us
headed the column with the line : " Mainly a Question
of Coal."

At that time, I pointed out, nearly the whole avail-
able stock of steam-coal in Asiatic waters was in the
hands of Britain and of Japan. Had hostilities broken
out in the Far East in the winter of 1897-8, the ships
of all the other Powers would have been, in a short time,
at the mercy of the two States that held the coal. Cir-
cumstances so entirely favourable to them are not likely
to recur. The countries whose ships were then obliged
to have recourse to British coaling-stations, wisely clotted

3io THE NEW FAR EAST.

along the great ocean routes between Europe and the
Far East, or to the coal-mines of Japan, are now no
longer entirely dependent on coal stored under foreign,
and probably unfriendly, flags. Realising the fact that
their ships moved in Asiatic waters only by the good will
of Britain and of Japan, and that their communications
with their Far Eastern dependencies were thus precarious,
Russia and France had long ago determined on a policy
that would free them from this disadvantage. Russia
"marked down" the coalfields of Manchuria and of
Pe-chi-li as the chief sources of supply for her constantly
increasing fleet in the Northern Pacific, until such time
as the Great Siberian Railway's completion would place
the output of the rich stores of coal, known to exist in
Siberia, at her disposal. France made great, and successful,
efforts to develop the coalfields of Tong-king, the chief
wealth of that costly part of her Indo-Chinese Dominion.
Germany conceived the plan of securing a foot-hold in
Shan-tung, a Province reputed to contain coal suitable for
naval purposes, and cast covetous eyes on Kiao-chau, an
excellent harbour in that district. The schemes of the
three Powers were put into execution with determination,
and with that paramount condition of success : a clear
knowledge of the object aimed at. Russia, France and
Germany knew what they wanted and got it. At their
newly-acquired naval stations in the Far East they are
accumulating large stores of coal, whilst preparing to
develop to the fullest extent the mining resources of the
territories they have so cleverly managed to get under
their control. Every day brings them nearer to complete
independence in this vital question of coaling, and, in the
meantime, Russia is making experiments on a grand scale
with liquid fuel, obtained from her great oilfields in the
Baku region, and is causing several of her new warships
to be fitted with contrivances enabling them to generate
steam by the combustion either of coal or of mineral
oil, and in every country of Continental Europe men of

THE SITUATION CHANGING. 311

science are devoting their energies to the development of
electric motive power, in the fond hope of freeing the
shipping of their countries from its bondage to coal and
thus depriving Britain of one of her greatest advantages
in the struggle for supremacy at sea.

Meanwhile, " Old King Coal " continues to rule the
ocean, but his sovereignty in Eastern Asia is no
longer synonymous with British preponderance. The
first ten years of the twentieth century will see the
other European Powers, and a new factor in the
Far Eastern problem the United States of America
provided with ample reserves of coal, a great part
of it drawn from mines under their own flags, stored
in strongly-fortified harbours at strategical points in
Eastern Asia. The situation thus created will intensify
the regret with which patriotic Britons will view the
policy, if it deserve that name, that allowed precious years
to be frittered away, during which their country held the
trump card of the international game. They will look
back with sorrow to the time when Britain could com-
mand peace and orderly progress in the Far East by
simply denying coal to ambitious disturbers and neg-
lected to make timely use of the enormous advantage
she enjoyed. \JThe Japanese coal-mines are, of course,
independent of British control, but it is certain that, in
case of hostilities, Japan would declare coal to be con-
traband of war, and would reserve her supplies for the
needs of her own navy, so that Britain's opponents
could not reckon upon replenishing their bunkers from
that quarter.1

The wisdom that presides over the naval system ot
Japan is well exemplified in the types of vessels compos-
ing her fleet. The main idea prevailing in their selection
is the defence of the national interests by offensive opera-
tions against the enemy's fleets Nelson's own plan, as
valid to-day as it was in his time. In the case of Japan,
these operations are intended to be carried on at no very

312 THE NEW FAR EAST.

great distance from the base of operations at home, a
fact that ought to bring comfort to those timid minds that
are haunted by visions of Japanese squadrons attacking
Occidental ports, and her warships are, consequently, not
built for the storage of the large quantities of coal that
must be carried by vessels intended, like those of the
British Navy, to fight thousands of miles away from their
own coasts. Much of the space thus left at the disposal
of the designers is utilised, to the best advantage, by the
provision of more guns and of a larger reserve of am-
munition, all - important considerations in modern naval
actions, when victory falls to the side that can pour the
heaviest continuous hail of projectiles on to the enemy.
The ships, free from the necessity of carrying coal and
stores for long voyages, can be built comparatively smaller,
and, therefore, "handier," and require smaller comple-
ments to work them. In one of the most important
attributes of modern warships the vessels of the Japanese
Navy take high rank in the world's fleets they are
amongst the swiftest of all the fighting ships afloat. And
they are fighting ships in reality as well as in name,
owing to the wise system that replaces every ship, the
moment she begins to fall behind the times, by a fresh
one, embodying the best "up to date" features that ex-
perience, and a careful survey of the progress of foreign
navies, can suggest. In the Japanese " Naval Returns "
the honest course is pursued of plainly indicating the ships
that can alone be relied upon to do effective service in
war; "wash-tubs," "foot-baths," crawling "cruisers,"
" Noah's Ark " battleships, and the rest of the obsolete
craft that are, in navies that we wot of very near home,
annually paraded in "Lists of Ships in Commission,"
and patched up and tinkered at great expense, have
no place amongst the " fighting ships " of Japan.
They are relegated to the category of ships that can
"neither fight nor run," and are made to end their
days in useful, if subordinate, employment, as training-

THE "BLUEJACKET SPIRIT? 313

ships for Boys and for Cadets, receiving - ships, gun-
nery and torpedo school - ships, surveying - vessels,
stationary store -hulks, and for purposes of coast and
fishery-police.

Admirably armed and equipped, kept in the very pink
of condition their engines, especially, tended with ex-
treme care the splendid warships of New Japan majestic
battleships, swift cruisers, "lightning-speed" torpedo-boat
destroyers, and torpedo-boats all possess a boon precious
above any advantage of build, of armour, of speed, or of
artillery : they are manned by officers and crews who
are sailors, every inch of every one of them ! Not only
have they proved themselves to be imbued with the
most ardent patriotism, animated by heroic gallantry,
capable of chivalry towards fallen foes, endowed with re-
markable powers of endurance, wonderfully obedient to
discipline, and skilful to the highest degree in all that
pertains to modern naval warfare they have shown the
world repeatedly that they possess, besides all these
qualities, to be found in the personnel of several other
navies, that scarcely definable something that makes the
British sailor the glorious fellow that he is, that something
that I must call the " Bluejacket Spirit." It is hardly to
be described in words; object-lessons alone could make
it manifest. In order to explain it to my non-naval
Readers, I would have to take them to some great naval
roadstead in foreign parts, where men-of-war of half a
dozen nations are lying at anchor, and I would bid them
watch officers and - men of the various navies at drill
at gun-drill, boat-drill, small-arms drill, cutlass-drill, gym-
nastics, torpedo-drill at any of the many exercises that
fill the life of that "Jack of all Trades," and Master of
All, the modern man-of-war's man, who is " Sailor and
Soldier too " (in many navies, including the Japanese, the
Marines have been abolished, their duties being performed
by the Bluejackets,) and often engineer, mechanic, and
electrician besides. Especially should the various ships'

314 THE NEW FAR EAST.

companies be watched at heavy-gun-drill. Under the
various flags a general average of excellence will probably
be found to prevail. In all, or nearly all, the ships'
batteries one will note the swift execution of commands,
the steady, mechanical, almost automatic, motions, per-
formed in silence, that constitute perfect drill. But under
two ensigns only something far beyond mere precision
and discipline will be noted, an indescribable spirit that
rings out in the calm, strong voice of the Officer of
Quarters, and illumines his keen face, a spirit that shines
in the eyes of the gun's crew, from the bronzed, bearded
Petty Officer, the Captain of the Gun, to the rosy-cheeked
First-Class Boy acting as Extra Powderman. It quivers
in the strong limbs of the brawny Seamen-Gunners, it is
in the elastic "skip" of their bare feet, as silent, nimble,
sure of their work, they serve the huge gun. Under their
control, the great piece of ordnance, with its complicated
mechanism, so intricate, yet obedient to a child's touch,
seems to become a living thing. The contrivances that
load, and train, the great cannon, that lay, and fire, and
sponge it, are purely mechanical ; they can be managed
by any well-trained, intelligent men, but, in order to
achieve the best results, a dash of the Bluejacket Spirit
must enter into the composition of the gun's crew. It
is that animating spirit one finds at work in the men who
sail under the white ensign of St. George, and in those
over whom the sun-flag of Japan shakes out its folds in
the breeze. See those men at any sort of work, afloat
or ashore, you will find the same alert intelligence, the
same brisk, unhesitating movements, the same spruce
appearance, the same pride in their work well done, the
same "joy of living," of being hale and hearty, smart and
"fit." Put the Bluejackets of Britain and those of Japan
to any unusual work, set them to build a landing-stage
out of spare spars and odds and ends of timber, to throw
up earthworks, to paint a shed, to work a sewing-machine,
to tell a tree or to ride a bicycle, to scale a cliff or to

THE SEA-POWER OF JAPAN. 315

mind a baby, they will enter upon the unaccustomed
duty with a rattling, rousing energy, a rapidity of under-
standing and a handiness in execution, that do one good
to see. Real live men, and, what is more, real live Blue-
jackets, the sailors of Britain's Royal Navy, with the
glorious traditions of centuries to inspire them, and those
of Japan's brand-new naval service are imbued with the
spirit I have attempted to describe. And of such is the
Kingdom of the Sea.*

[Japan possesses all the elements of Sea-Power : swift,
powerful ships, adapted to the work they are intended for,
numerous good harbours, excellent coal in abundance,
capital facilities for the repair of her vessels, and the
necessary plant, constantly augmented and improved, for
building new ones. I Her naval organisation is wise and
efficient, her administrative services are thorough and
honest; her naval officers are gallant, dashing, and scien-
tifically trained, and the armament they control is of
the latest and best pattern. ("Strong in ships, strong
in guns, Japan is stronger stm in the factor without
which ships and guns are useless "the Man behind the
Gun/M

Tfie careful forethought, the adaptation of means to
the end to be achieved, the study of minute details, and

* The " Bluejacket Spirit " may also be observed, in full activity, in the
crews of United States warships, especially of those having a large infusion
of the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic element, either American-born, or imported, by
expiration of service, or by the quicker way of desertion, from the British
Royal Navy. American Naval Officers, who are, by their gallantry and
technical skill, as well as by their kindly courtesy, an honour to the naval
profession, are apt to be rather sensitive on this point. They will assure you
that their splendid men are Americans. " Why, certainly ! That Signalman
hails from New York. The Quartermaster over there is a Philadelphian ;
every man has the State he belongs to entered against his name on enrolment.
That Gunner's Mate very like a Seaman-Gunner you were shipmate with,
years ago, in H.M.S. Goshawk ? Impossible ; he is entered in the ship's
books as from New Jersey! " But there is a twinkle in the Gunner's Mate's
bright eyes, and the soft accent of the old " West Country " round about
" Plymouth, Eng.," is perceptible through the twang acquired under the Stars
and Stripes. Recruiting officers at Brooklyn Navy Yard, as elsewhere, do not
waste time in investigating a smart man's statements as to his nationality.

316 THE NEW FAR EAST.

the general earnestness and thoroughness that distinguish
the organisation of the Japanese Navy, the absolute
efficiency of which reflects the highest honour on the
British Naval Advisers and Instructors, and the French
Naval Constructors and Engineers, who nursed it through
its infancy, are equally evident in the military system of
Japan. The history of the war with China, in 1894-5,
is one long chain of instances of the efficiency of the
Japanese land and sea forces, co-operating with such
complete unity of purpose and direction that it is difficult
to determine which of the two services deserves the
higher praise. This much is certain, that the lessons
learnt from the foreign Instructors who guided the first
steps of the Army of New Japan British officers at the
very outset, then, for a number of years, a French Mission
Militaire, Italian artillerists in the gun-foundry at Osaka,
and, lastly, German Military Advisers have been turned
to the best advantage. Japan possesses not only the
most powerful navy in Eastern waters, but also the
most formidable mobile land force in the Far East, indeed
in the whole of Asia, if we take into consideration the
circumstances that render the continual presence in India
of a large British garrison, both European and Native,
necessary, and therefore immobilise the greater part of what
would otherwise be the strongest army east of the Red
Sea. I purposely lay stress on the mobility of the Japanese
army, and upon the fact of the greater portion of the
British army in India, including the native troops, being
required permanently in that Empire and on its frontiers,
because therein lie considerations of the utmost importance
in the solution of the problems of the Far East. Japan
can, when her interests demand it, land a couple of Army
Corps, each thirty thousand strong, perfectly armed and
equipped, on the mainland of Asia within three weeks of
the issue of the order to "Mobilise," and, thanks to her
insular position, to her trained reserves at home, and to
her efficient navy, she can do this without exposing her

THE JAPANESE ARMY ORGANISATION. 317

coasts to the risk of successful invasion, and in the
confident knowledge that, holding command of the com-
paratively narrow seas between her shores and the con-
tinent, her lines of communication with the expeditionary
corps would remain secure, unless her opponent happened
to be a naval power of the first rank, possessing dockyards
and reserves of coal in Eastern Asia.

With what skill this force would be directed, how
accurately the co-operation of its various units would be
timed, how smoothly the Commissariat and Medical Services
would work, how gallantly the highly-trained officers and
the docile, hardy rank and file would fight, all this admits
of no doubt in the minds of the military experts who have
studied the performance of the Japanese army in the war
with China. Of course, if arrayed against an enemy more
formidable than the Chinese, the army of Japan could
scarcely be expected to obtain such overwhelming results
with such slight losses, but it would, undoubtedly, give an
excellent account of itself in the face of any foe, however
formidable, and it looks forward to the possibility, nay, to
the probability, of such a conflict with perfect confidence ;
not in a spirit of overweening conceit and of depreciation
of its likely opponents, but with a firm belief in the capacity
of its leaders, the efficiency of its organisation and the skill
and gallantry of its men. The military leaders of Japan
are well aware that there is no finality in matters pertaining
to the art of war, and they are continually striving to
perfect the admirable fighting-machine they have created.
They are, especially, devoting their attention to the increase
and improvement of the Cavalry, numerically the weakest
arm in a mountainous island country, breeding small horses
(ponies, rather, notorious for their vicious propensities)
and affording scant space for the manoeuvres of mounted
troops, even in the plains, owing to their being intersected,
over large areas, by the innumerable channels for the irri-
gation of the rice-fields, and the narrow, raised causeways
between the plots.

3 i8 THE NEW PAR EAST.

The importance of the Japanese army as a thoroughly
efficient, " up-to-date " force, comparing favourabty, in every-
thing but numbers, with the great armies of Continental
Europe, is now well understood by Occidentals. The
" Fighting Power," on land, of the Chinese Empire is,
on the contrary, the subject of much discussion even
amongst those who know the country and the people,
and is, naturalty, a mystery to the general public. The
general impression is that the Chinese are arrant cowards,
an idea strengthened by the unanimity with which large
bodies of " Braves " fled, panic-stricken, on many occasions
during the war with Japan, abandoning strong positions
almost without firing a shot at the enerrty, often numerically
inferior, and by the excess of prudence, to use no stronger
term, that caused certain Chinese Captains, at the battle
off the Yalu, to take their ships out of harm's way early
in the action. The Military Mandarins directing their
troops from a dignified seat, placed in a sheltered spot well
in rear of the fighting line ; the Chinese Cavalry who rode
into action at Ping-yang under umbrellas of yellow oiled
paper, fanning themselves vigorously, whilst servants brought
up the rear, carrying the troopers' Winchester repeating
carbines; the General who, after the crushing defeat at
that place, begged the Japanese Commander-in-Chief to
allow him another twelve hours' respite "as it would be
so inconvenient to surrender in the rain, and the weather
might clear by the morrow ; " the Tao-tai of Wei-hai-wei,
Niu Chang-ping, who, at the capitulation of that fortress
and of the fleet under its guns, requested Admiral I to to be
good enough to return the warship Kuang-ping, "because
she really belonged to the Squadron of the Viceroy of
Kwang-tung (Canton), who had nothing to do with the
war," and, if she were kept by the Japanese, he, the
Tao-tai, "would have no excuse to offer to the aforesaid
Viceroy ; " perhaps the Japanese Admiral, sympathising
with Niu in his trouble, would kindly return her hull,
keeping her armament ; the Viceroy would not " look-see "

CHINESE MILITARY EQUIPMENT. 319

too closely, and no awkward questions would be asked !
All these grotesque incidents of the war, and many more,
as well as other manifestations of pigtailed pig-headedness
following immediately after that grand, but wasted, object-
lesson, made a deep impression on the Western mind. Of
the follies perpetrated after the war, the following is a
typical specimen : On the 24th of August, 1896, the
Peking Gazette published a Report by His Excellency
TSENG Ch'i, Tartar General and Military Governor of Hei-
lung-chiang, which gives an excellent insight into the work-
ing of the Celestial official and military mind. The Report
begins with remarks on the futility of the antiquated arma-
ment bows and arrows and old fashioned muskets of
eleven thousand out of the eighteen thousand Tartar troops,
officered by Manchus, under his command (the remainder
were armed with "up to date" Mauser rifles). The
General's condemnation of the old-fashioned arms as " worse
than useless in actual warfare," and his fulminations against
their use as "like child's play .... good enough against
Nien-fei, Red Turbans, and other rebels, but useless against
foreign troops " (the Japanese) " armed with most superior
weapons, that sent their bullets to a considerable distance"
(one is irresistibly reminded of the Curate's threatened
"really hard knock" in The Private Secretary?) might
emanate from an earnest military reformer. They inspire
a feeling of hopefulness in the future of an Empire whose
military leaders begin to see the error of their old
ways, but this feeling is soon dispelled, for in the
next few sentences General TSENG Ch'i expresses the
fear that the arming of all his troops with "new far-
carrying rifles" would not be feasible, because, as he
plaintively remarks, "the exchequer is too empty to pay
the cost."

However, the gallant and ingenious Tartar General
devised a remedy for the absurdly inadequate armament
of his men. After delivering an address on the subject to
the Manchu officers under his command, he "proposed to

320 THE NEW FAR EAST.

them" I am quoting the Peking Gazette "to use the
t'ai-tsiang, or two-men 'gingal,' apportioning three men
to each gun, i.e., one man to cany the gun at the muzzle "
(letting it rest on his shoulder, presumably,) "one man
to fire it, and a third with the ammunition and armed
with a sword to guard the other two while at work. As
the ' gingals ' now lying in the Tsi-tsi-har Arsenal are of
the old-fashioned make, which require the lighted rope
fuse, and are, therefore, useless in rainy weather, Memo-
rialist" (that is, General Ts6ng, reporting to the Throne,)
" proposed to manufacture new fai-t'siang, after the
Kiang-su pattern, loading by the breech with cartridge.
This innovation being unanimously approved of by the
said Manchu Commandants, Memorialist would now ask
the consent of the Throne to arm the troops of the Hei-
lung-chiang with the t'ai-fsiang, and proposes to raise the
funds necessary for manufacturing them and the ammuni-
tion required for them." Thus far the Report in the
Peking Gazette, which remains ominously silent as to
the ways and means the General proposed to adopt
in order "to raise the funds necessary for manu-
facturing." A very slight effort of the imaginative
faculty enables one to form an idea of their nature.
The Report was laid at the foot of the Throne, and
the Imperial Rescript thereon consists of the one word :
"Noted." ' W j

The occupant of the Dragon Throne "noted" the
scheme of reform in armament evolved from the fertile,
and very Chinese, brain of General Tseng ; the Occident
noted many similar instances of Celestial military inepti-
tude, adding them to its previous knowledge of Chinese
timorousness in the field, and was more than ever con-
vinced of the unfitness of the Chinese for war. So general
did this conviction become that it caused Occidentals to
forget the desperate resistance offered by Chinese troops
on several occasions during the war with Japan, especially,
it is true, when they were in some "tight place," whence

\VHAT GORDON DID IN CHINA. 3*1

flight was impossible. It made them overlook the gallant
conduct of General Tso Pao-kwei, who fell at Ping-
yang, killed by the third bullet that struck him, whilst
cheering on his men, and the stout defence of Wei-hai-wei
by the heroic Admiral Ting. Little was known in the
West of the valour displayed by many Chinese sailors at
the battle off the Yalu, when the crews of some of the
Celestial battleships were, in their ardour, fighting with
one another at the ammunition hoists for supplies of
projectiles and cartridges for their respective guns. In-
dividual acts of courage disappeared in the midst of the
general debacle of cowardice, corruption and imbecility,
and the popular feeling of the West towards China's
fighting power, at the close of the war, was one of well-
justified contempt.

With that strange inconsistency that frequently charac-
terises it, British public opinion, having pronounced the
Chinese to be arrant cowards, began immediately to form
plans for a brilliant era of progress and prosperity in China,
to be secured by a powerful defensive force, on sea and land,
composed of those very men whose lack of courage had
been so bitterly derided. What magician was expected to
transform them, by a wave of his wand, from an un-
warlike rabble into capable, brave soldiers and sailors ?
The British Officer was nay, is, for the belief is still
widely prevalent the wizard credited with such super-
human powers. If anyone ventured to call these powers
in question, he was triumphantly referred to " Chinese
Gordon " and his " Ever- victorious Army." Now, far be
it from me to write a single word that might appear to
be intended to minimise the grand achievements in China
of that pure-hearted hero, but, surely, his glory is suffi-
ciently great to be able to dispense with the halo of
exaggeration which has formed round the story of his
exploits in the Celestial Empire. Dispassionately con-
sidered, his great work in China amounts to this, that he
formed, trained and led a force of native soldiers with
which he completely defeated the Tai-ping rebels, who
v

3*2 THE NEW PAR EAST.

had overrun some of the fairest provinces, and had shaken
the Empire to its very foundations. But it must not be
forgotten that his opponents were a mere horde of badly-
armed, worse-equipped, peasants and "coolies," without
drill or organisation. They had degenerated, in the course
of nearly fourteen years of civil war, from a band of
enthusiasts inspired partly by racial feeling against the
Manchu dynasty, partly by discontent at the appalling
misgovernment, partly by religious mysticism, a sort of
ill-digested rudimentary Christianit)?', that developed into
a travesty of the Faith, comparable to the Hau-hau
"religion" of the Maori insurgents, in New Zealand, in
the 'sixties from the nearest approach to an army of
patriots that China had seen for two centuries, to an
immense horde of robbers. Moreover, the vast majority
of the population, who had sided with them, in the
beginning, in all the districts they conquered, had become
heartily sick of the degenerate Tai-ping " liberators/'
their plundering and their atrocious cruelties, and, con-
sequently, afforded all possible aid to the Imperial troops.
In these circumstances, and against such foes brave,
without doubt, but absolute 1 }' without organisation or
plans the European weapons, drill, discipline (such as it
was,) and tactics introduced by Gordon could not but
prevail, but the force he had created would, had it been
pitted against the army of even a small European state,
have speedily lost its claim to the proud title of " Ever-
victorious." The error into which the British public
fell in estimating the value of Gordon's "Army" is again
prevalent whenever the question of the reorganisation of
China's Fighting Power is discussed.

That British officers would rapidly convert the Chinese
armed rabble into the semblance of an army admits of
no doubt. The result of the untiring efforts of the
numerous German Instructors formerly in the pay of some
of the Viceroys, and of the British Instructors at one time
employed to train the personnel of the navy, proves that
the Chinese readily acquire the rudiments of the naval

FOREIGN MILITARY INSTRUCTORS. 323

and military arts, but it also shows that they can very
seldom proceed beyond the elementary stages. They
easily learn the drill necessary for the performance of
simple evolutions, they acquire the manual, firing, and
bayonet exercises in a relatively short time, they can be
trained, without any great difficulty, to serve the most
modern types of guns, and to use torpedos, but they do
it all in a purely mechanical way, correctly enough, but
"woodenly." Their hearts are not in the work. They
obey the foreign Instructor not always with a good
grace they repose in him a relative confidence rarely
accorded to any of their officers of their own race ;
they will follow him into action if they must ; they
will even, under his command, quit themselves credit-
ably in the fight, but only creditably. They may
respect their Occidental leader, they do not love him ;
he ever remains, in their eyes, the tiresome pedant who
is so absurdly particular in matters of detail ; who insists,
for instance, on the screwing up, or down, of the sights
on a heavy gun, and on the judging of distances to some-
thing more accurate than a // or two, who " fusses " about
a missing machine-gun, and actually will have guns and
rifles cleaned that must, inevitably, become dirty again
when they are fired. They humour his curious whims in
order to escape punishment, but the spirit of emulation is
not in them. Train them, drill them, arm them as you
will, put them into uniform, stiffen their backs and ex-
pand their chests, teach them to march, to ride, to shoot
they will remain a mere collection of armed men, not
an army. Unwarlike in temperament, inwardly despising
their profession, themselves despised by their civilian com-
patriots for following it, they will never be fit to stand
up against Occidental troops until their national character
has undergone a complete change. When the science of
war has been studied by a future generation of Chinese
native officers, of higher character than those hitherto
employed, when the navy and the army become " respect-
able " services in the eyes of the people, above all, when

524 THE NEW FAR EAST.

the naval and military administration is cleansed of the
corruption and jobbery that reign supreme then the
British Instructor may convert all the excellent physical
material handed over to him the endurance and the
strength, accompanied by wonderful patience and cheer-
fulness into a real Navy, into a real Army, worthy of
the name. For the present, and for a long time to come,
China cannot produce Fighting Power, by sea or land, that
could, even under the tuition of the wonder-working
British Oflicer, successfully resist the forces either of her
strong neighbours, Russia or Japan, could array against
her. The fact is a disappointing one for Britain ; it would
be so convenient if a new Chinese Navy built, of course,
in the United Kingdom, provided with British officers
"lent" by the Admiralty, and receiving thumping salaries
from China, and commanded by that most genial and
breezy of Commercial Travellers, " our Lord Charles Beres-
ford," with a still more thumping salary if such a navy,
in conjunction with a reorganised Chinese Army, officered,
in the higher ranks, by scores of British officers, " seconded"
from their regiments, or on half-pay, or even " retired,"
and of others, perchance, from the Militia, but all in
receipt of handsome pay and "allowances" from the
Chinese exchequer could overawe Russia in the Far East
and keep her peacefully within her borders ! It is a
pleasant dream, nothing more. China cannot, under her
present misrule, afford the luxury of such forces. Even
if she could, their existence would, indeed, be bighty
obnoxious to Russia, and to her friends, but it would not
terrify them in the least. They would increase their
armaments, and continue to pursue their policy undis-
turbed. Russia knows the Chinese so thoroughly that she
has no dread of Celestial forces, even if commanded by
British officers.

Although Russia has so accurately gauged the military
inefficiency of the Chinese, she has taken steps to pro-
vide herself, in the future, with a large, and practically
inexhaustible, force of Chinese soldiers, trained and com-

RUSSIA'S CHINESE ARMY. 323

manded by Muscovite officers. One of the first outward
and visible signs of the supremacy of Russian influence in
China was the arrival at Peking, about the time of the
occupation of Port Arthur by the Tsar's troops, of a
Colonel of the Russian Staff, to take up the position of
Military Adviser to the Chinese Government. The gallant
Palkovnik proceeded at once to take charge of the in-
struction of the large force of sturdy Northern Chinese
and hardy Hu-nan men the "fighting cocks" of China
assembled in entrenched camps in the region round Peking,
and appears to have then become engulphed in space.
At all events, but vague rumours of his whereabouts have
since reached the outer world. Enquiring tourists are
not encouraged in the vicinity of any spot where Russia's
plans are being carried out, until the execution of the
schemes devised in St. Petersburg has become an accom-
plished fact, not to be upset by any amount of descriptive
reporting, nor by a hail of "paper bullets" from the
British press. I happen to know that the Russian Military
Adviser and his Staff of Instructors are carrying on their
work unremittingly, and I venture to predict that they
will achieve success. Half-Asiatic themselves, the Russians
have a remarkable facility for understanding the character
of the Chinese people, with whom they easily ingratiate
themselves. The Chinese soldier finds in the Russian an
officer whom he understands, and the feeling that springs
up between them is far nearer to the ideal relation
between the officer and his men so tersely laid down
by the great Skobeleff: "a father to the Privates, an
elder brother to the Non - Commissioned Officers" than
could ever be the case were the Chinese under British
leaders, who appear to them a strange, uncanny race,
whose motives and customs, whose very amusements, are
beyond Celestial comprehension. Gradually, and surely,
Russia is training for her own purposes a Chinese army,
instructed, at no cost to China, by Russian officers, a force
that is destined to play a great part in the future history
of Asia. It will, we may be sure, be practically trained

326 THE NEW FAR EAST.

to fit it for the end in view ; not for a contest with
Occidental troops the Russians know their Chinese allies,
or, rather, vassals, too well for that risky experiment
but to overawe those amongst the Chinese who, feeling
the promptings of the spirit of reform, might attempt to
break the fetters that Russia is helping to rivet more
tightly, and for garrison and police duties in the occupied
territories, and along Russia's enormously extended lines
of communication overland, thus freeing many thousands
of Russian troops for that struggle against white men that
Chinese soldiers would be unequal to. For the purposes
indicated, Chinese troops, trained and commanded by
Russians, would be perfectly serviceable.

There is another nation, a Far. Eastern one, that is
called upon by its manifest destiny to play a great part
in the reorganisation of China's Fighting Power by sea and
land. Several Japanese officers have already been engaged
by the Viceroy of Hu-nan, the most anti-foreign Province,
as Military Instructors, and more will follow. The Japanese
have everything in their favour, as compared even with
the Russians, in the competition for the creation of new,
and real, naval and military forces in China. Their
officers, accustomed to a veiy moderate scale of pay, and
of living, will make but slight demands on the impover-
ished Chinese exchequer ; they understand the Chinese
nature as no Occidental can, and they enjoy the inesti-
mable advantage of being able to convey their meaning, by
means of a few strokes of a pencil, to any Chinese able
to read his own language. Moreover, the Chinese have
good reason to respect the prowess of the Japanese. A
Chinese navy and a Chinese army, trained and led by
Japanese truly, the forecast is calculated to give cause
for grave reflection ! And its fulfilment is within the
bounds of probability, in spite of Russia's efforts, and of
Palace Revolutions and other "alarums and excursions."
But the time is not yet, and, meanwhile, the Fighting
Power, by sea and land, of the Far Eastern Empires is
summed up in one word Japan.

32?

CHAPTER VIII.
THE YELLOW PERIL.

THE first illustration to this Chapter boasts of high parent-
age. It is a reproduction of the allegorical drawing, by
Professor H. Knackfuss, from a design due to the pencil of
His Majesty William the Second, German Emperor and
King of Prussia the famous Kaiserbild that caused such
a sensation, throughout the world, on its production in
1895, a sensation heightened when the original was sent
to St. Petersburg, as a gift from its Imperial designer to
the Tsar. " Les petits cadeaux entretiennent I'amitie" and
His Germanic Majesty was, at that time, particularly
anxious to assure his powerful neighbour of the warmth
and sincerity of his friendship. In order to prove his
desire for that good understanding with Russia that was
ever a cardinal point in Bismarck's policy, and to take
another step towards that reconciliation with France which
it is the Emperor's laudable ambition to achieve, in order,
besides, to obtain a triumph over British diplomacy and
prestige in the Far East that would earn plaudits from
the Anglophobe majority of his subjects, Kaiser Wilhelm
had just joined Russia and France in bullying Japan out
of the Liao-tung Peninsula, now in Russian hands. This
extraordinary reversal of Germany's policy of intimate
friendship with Japan a policy pursued for many years,
right up to the close of the war with China, with the most
beneficial results for German trade was put down, by the
world at large, to a coup de tete of the preternaturally

328 THE NEW FAR EAST.

active young monarch. Some, with a certain claim to
being behind the scenes, ascribed the sudden change of
front to the influence of Herr von Brandt, a clever
diplomatist who had represented Germany for years at the
Courts of Peking and of Tokio, and had made himself
conspicuous at both by the energy with which he " pushed "
the commercial interests of his country, especially in the
matter of government contracts tendered for by compatriots.
In accordance with the good old Prussian custom, when-
ever any subject becomes of great importance to the
German Empire the Sovereign summons those who are
reputed to have particular knowledge of the question, and
hears from them "verbal reports," intended to inform the
Imperial mind a practice that might be imitated, with
advantage, nearer home. It was alleged, in 1895, that on
the occasion of Herr von Brandt's audience, to which he
was summoned immediately after the original Japanese
terms of peace became known, he drew such an appalling
picture of the danger Europe would incur if Japan were
allowed to obtain a footing on the mainland of Asia that
the Emperor resolved to reverse his Asiatic policy, and to
join Russia and France in coercing Japan. It is an interest-
ing story, this, of the "expert" setting forth his views
so eloquently as to infect the monarch with the "Yellow
Fever" that has periodically attacked Occidental thinkers
ever since the publication of the late Dr. C. H. Pearson's re-
markable work, National Life and Character : a Forecast,
but it makes too great a demand on our credulity.

The German Emperor is known to be frequently
swayed by sudden impulse, but we may be sure that, in
a matter of such moment as the policy of Germany in the
Far East, he would not have lightly jeopardised the
rising commerce of his subjects with Japan, nor the para-
mount influence Germany had obtained in that country,
without grave cause. Great as Germany's interests in
the Far East undoubtedly are, her chief concern must be
her position towards her powerful neighbours in Europe.

IN SEARCH OF A JUSTIFICATION. 329

Russia's traditional policy in Eastern Asia was approach-
ing fruition, the Japanese victories over China had
"forced" the fruit so rapidly that the Chinese pear, pre-
maturely ripe, was on the point of falling into the lap, not
of the patient Muscovite, who had waited for it so long,
but into that of the unexpected new-comer, Japan.
Russia had to act quickly, in order to warn off the
intruder and to spread her own apron under the tree.
She inaugurated the " Intervention of the Powers " ; her
bond slave, France, had to follow suit. Britain, to her
everlasting honour, and ultimate profit, refused to be a
party to the dirty trick, for such it was, that deprived
Japan of her lawful, and dearly-bought, spoils in order to
hand them over to Russia. Germany knew all along what
aims Russia was pursuing. She was well aware that
Japan would not be allowed to keep the most important
fruits of her victor} 7 , and if she showed ostentatious sym-
pathy, during the war, with the Japanese, whom she
looked upon as her pupils in military science, "show-
pupils," too, Germany, or, at all events, her statesmen,
did not hesitate to throw over Japan the moment it
became necessaiy to propitiate Russia. The German
Emperor, therefore, when he joined the intervening
powers, forming, in Asia, a new, and apparently un-
natural, Triple Alliance, acted in accordance with the
dictates of a cool, calculating policy, leading, in the first
place, to a cordial understanding with Russia, in the near
future, to territorial acquisition in China (the Kiao-chau
coup was not quite the unpremeditated affair the general
public believed it to be,) and, ultimately, to the detriment
of Britain all things devoutly wished for, especially the
last, by the great majority of Germans.

Having openly cast in his lot, at the proper time,
with Russia and France in the Far East, the German
Emperor was in need of a justification, especially in the
eyes of his bewildered subjects, up to that time so
enthusiastic for the cause of Japan. As they read the

330 THE NEW FAR EAST.

startling news of the New Triple Alliance, the good
Germans shook their heads, and muttered into their
beer-glasses not too loudly, for like the " bhoys " of
" Slattery's Mounted Foot," renowned in song, they are

fond of

" Playing rebel tunes
Cautiously on the dhrum."

And their muttering was to the effect that this was
another of their Emperor's playful ways of startling the
world " wieder em Kaiserstreich / " Some went so far
as to show one another, in corners, a pamphlet entitled
Caligula, a learned and laboured classical joke, chuckling
over its pages until the shadow of a passing Schutzmann
sent them, hurriedly and with beating hearts, in different
directions. The public opinion of German)?- had to be
brought into line with the Imperial policy ; what better
argument could be employed for this end than that of fear ?
The dissatisfied must be brought to recognise that their
Sovereign's wisdom had saved the nation from imminent
danger so the " Yellow Peril " bogey was brought out
and plainly exhibited, like a yokel's turnip-and-sheet
"ghost," to scare the lieges. This artifice of state-craft
was admirably suited both to the German national
character, predisposed to take a deep interest in great
racial problems, to be worked out in the distant future
a period the matter-of-fact Briton, constitutionally averse
to looking beyond the tip of his nose, leaves to take care
of itself and to the Kaiser's idiosyncrasy. To pose as
the Saviour of Christendom from the impending Yellow
Peril is an attitude that commends itself strongly to the
Emperor's highly-developed dramatic instinct. From th.3
moment he adopted it a process, not infrequent with him,
commenced in his impressionable mind, by which he
rapidly persuaded himself that he actually was the Cham-
pion of Christendom against the caitiff Paynim.

Under the influence of this belief, a sincere one, for
no one can justly accuse him of insincerity in any of

THE KAISER AS CARTOONIST. 331

his actions, the Kaiser designed the drawing he com-
missioned Professor Knackfuss to carry out, the striking
pictorial allegory reproduced, by special permission, as
an illustration to this Chapter. Its authorship, the gracious
manner in which permission to use it was, unhesitatingly,
granted, and, above all, the fact that the fee charged for
the permission was contributed, by His Majesty's desire,
to a charitable institution enjoying the Imperial patronage,
forbid any criticism of the artistic qualities of the famous
drawing, but an examination of the meaning it is intended
to convey throws a strong light on the Kaiser's position
towards Far Eastern affairs. There is more in the picture
than meets the eye.

On the brow of a high cliff stands an Archangel,
probably Michael, the namesake, and patron, of that
deutscher Michel typical of the Teuton as John Bull is
of the Englishman who, as was proclaimed in one of
the Kaiser's famous oratorical outbursts, has planted his
shield firmly on Chinese soil. With flaming sword in
hand, the Archangel is exhorting a group of female per-
sonifications of the principal nations of Europe, and point-
ing towards the approaching Peril, separated from them
by a river, unspecified, but presumably the Danube,
flowing, with a great bend, through the valley far below.
Germany, tall and buxom all the ladies are of the well-
nourished type dear to the allegorical artists of the
Fatherland the eagle with open wings on her helmet
recalling the headgear of the Kaiser's own magnificent
Gardes dn Corps, leans forward, eagerly listening to the
archangelic summons to arms. Clad in a coat of mail,
but gloveless her fists unmailed with drawn sword, and
grasping her shield, she is evidently "spoiling for a fight."
Somebody must have said "Kiao-chau."

Russia, in Scythian scale-armour, avoids being mistaken
for an armadillo, or, rather, a pangolin, by wearing an ap-
propriate bear's skin on her head and back. Armed
with the Cossack lance, she leans, in touching amity, on

332 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Germania's shoulder, a sight so irritating to France, carrying
a pike, and wearing the Phrygian cap of the Republic,
that she Gallia absolutely refuses to look again in their
direction, but prefers to gaze at the Peril. France shades
her bright eyes with her hand; at least, that is her
apparent attitude. Personally, I fancy she is arranging
her " fringe," disturbed by the wind on that bleak,
Gustave Dore-esque cliff. For it is a male Peril that
approaches.

In the second rank, Austria, her corselet blazoned
with the double-headed eagle, appears unarmed, a poor
compliment, on the part of the Imperial artist, to the
army of his most trusted ally ; perhaps a gentle hint
that the said heterogeneous force might, with advantage,
be strengthened and generally improved. Hungary is
absent; probably, the Asiatic origin of the Magyars,
their cousinship, albeit many times removed, to the
Peril, made it seem unadvisable to invite Pannonia to
ascend the cliff. She might, very likely, have " had
words" with Russia, or might have quarrelled with
Austria and dissolved partnership with her there and
then. Austria's attitude amongst the group is remarkable.
She holds Britannia's irresolute hand by the wrist, to
feel if her cold blood yet pulsates, and is evidently urging
her to make up her mind and to join the League.
Britannia, our own beautiful, familiar Britannia, has
stepped straight off our handsome bronze coinage we
now see it was not a bicycle but a shield that she had
been seated on but she carries a spear, instead of her
usual trident. Where is that symbol of maritime su-
premacy ? Can it be that its presence would have
reminded Germania too painfully of certain aspirations
so difficult to realise, of warships painfully "crawling"
Eastwards, and of a certain grand National Subscription
for the Building of Battleships and Cruisers, that pro-
duced 79 105. $d. in the course of a single fortnight ?

Britannia wavers ; her lovely face a reminiscence,

HOW THE CARTOON IS TO BE READ? 333

may-be, of sweet English girls seen at Cowes is pensive.
She knows that Peril well, you see ; she has done a
good deal of business with him in the past, and, naturally,
feels reluctant to use her spear against an old and valued
customer. So Austria has been deputed to persuade her;
strangely enough, for Austria, who has earned the nick-
name of "the China of Europe," has, practically, almost
no interests in the Far East. Here again, the picture
speaks clearly to the few who know that, on more than
one occasion, to Austria has the task been allotted ot
approaching Britain on subjects of prime interest to the
Triple Alliance, and especially to the " predominant
partner," Germany. Italy stands next to Britannia, bare-
headed, clad in a Roman corselet, her Legionary's sword
sheathed by her side, perhaps an allusion to the nicks
chipped on its edge, blunted on Abyssinian steel on the
fateful day of Adowa. Last of all stand two more typical
figures, , one perhaps Portugal almost entirely hidden,
clasping the hand of another whom we see plainly, and
who may be Spain, carrying two javelins. Judging by the
revelations of the war with the United States, their points
are probably of tin. It is noticeable that America is not
represented. She was evidently, at the time, still clad
in that Monroe gown, so old-fashioned that she could
not think of appearing in it before all those smartly-
dressed ladies. In the heavens the Cross is shining above
the group, its radiance forming a St. Andrew's Cross, the
badge of Russia, the instrument of the martyrdom of one
of her Patron Saints.

And the Peril ? He is approaching, in the midst of a
fiery glory, bursting through a storm-cloud, seated on a
dragon, an unmistakable Far Eastern dragon, the cloud
itself rising from the flames of a burning city. The dragon
seems an ill-chosen mount for a conquering Mongolian
Peril, as the expression " His Majesty mounted the Dragon "
means that an Emperor of China has departed this life.
However, there is no accounting for tastes; Monsieur de

334 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Rougemont used, he said, to ride turtles ; the Yellow Peril
mounts a dragon. Chacun h son gout. Fair cities lie
between the bank of the river and the cliff, their spires,
and domes, and castles exposed to the fate of the burning
town beyond, if only the storm-cloud reach them. Strangely,
the Peril himself is not ferocious in appearance. He sits,
cross-legged, in calm contemplation, with folded hands
and placid countenance, a Peril a child might play with !
Indeed, there is something about him that reminds one
irresistibly of the sweet Jizo, the gentle god whom the
Japanese have told off to be the playmate of little children's
souls in the other world. Arid no wonder, for the Peril,
as depicted by the Imperial Designer, is none other than
the Lord Buddha, the incarnation of Goodness and Wisdom,
the self-forgetting founder of the beautiful creed of Gentle-
ness and Pity, the Lord of whom it is written : " For the
Lord Buddha loved all created things, even the lowliest
insect."

The German Emperor is a wonderfulty versatile, remark-
ably clever man; there is hardly a science, an art, or a
sport, in which he does not take a lively interest, and in
which he has not attained a certain degree of proficiency.
That he is a clever designer is shown by the composition
of the Kaiser bi Id ; his bright, quick intellect is evident in
the grouping and the details. But " even Homer nods," and
I trust this is not Majest'dtsbeleidigung, an unmannerly
offence I hold in contempt even the Kaiser is not infalli-
ble, especially in matters of the Far East. Hence his
mistake in selecting, as the personification of the " Yellow
Peril," the figure of the founder of Buddhism, at the present
time the least aggressive religion in the world. This error
in symbolism apart, the Kaiser's meaning is plainly con-
veyed by the picture he designed. His Majesty foresees
a time, within measurable distance, when a struggle for
the survival of the fittest must take place between the
peoples of Europe, if not of the White Race all over the
world, and the Yellow Men, and he exhorts the nations

WILHELM INV." 335

of the West to unite against the common foe. In case
his spokesman, the Archangel with the flaming sword,
should not make himself clearly understood, the Germar
Emperor himself appeals, in the margin of the drawing,
to those he would rouse to common action against the
impending Peril. Here is his Imperial Message, traced in
his own characteristically bold, clear writing:

And, to emphasise the international character of the proposed
League, the appeal is translated into French : " Nations
europlennes ! Dtfendez vos biens sacres ! " and into English,
very freely, as : " Nations of Europe ! Join in the defence
of your faith and your home ! " The whole is authenticated
by the Imperial sign manual, " Wilhelm, I.R.", and the
origin of the picture is told in the words written in the
left-hand corner : " Nach einem Entwurf Seiner Majcstat
ties Deutschen Kaisers, Konigs von Prcussen, Wilhelm II.,
gez. v. II. Knackfuss, 1895." ("Drawn by H. Knackfuss,
1895, from a Design by His Majesty William II., German
Emperor, King of Prussia. 1 ') To point the moral of his
allegory, the German Emperor presented the original draw-
ing to the Tsar; surely, a plain sign to the rest of the
world that, whilst willing, and ready, to take a prominent
part in the New Crusade, His Germanic Majesty looked,
and looks, upon the Autocrat of All the Russias as the
natural leader in the movement to repel the Peril that
must cross his frontier first.

There are elements in the Kaiser's composite character
that escape the casual observer, even amongst his own
subjects. The British public has hardly been able to form
a just estimate of the young monarch owing to the wave

THE NEW FAR EAST.

of indignation that swept over the whole British Empire
in January, 1896, in consequence of his famous telegram
to President Kruger ; " an insult to Britain," people called
it at the time ; " ill-advised," they said, later on, and so
it was from the point of view of the Briton, who forgets,
or ignores, that this very "wire" did more to establish
the Emperor's popularity with the bulk of the German
people than any other act of his reign. Fortunately, time
and the whirligig of international politics have soothed
the Briton's wrath, actors no longer hustle one another in
their hurry to get down to the footlights first and say
something sarcastic about the German Emperor ; music
hall "stars" no longer write to managers that they have
secured " a good new song ; real good, with spicy encore
verse about the German Emperor ; bound to fetch 'em ! "
Now that the Briton can contemplate, with unruffled
nerves, the Kaiser's acts his fine speeches must ever
remain amusing mysteries to the Briton, they are intended
for home consumption he cannot fail to discover three
leading features in the Sovereign's character : that he is
exceedingly clever, that he is thoroughly German, and
thoroughly earnest in all he does. A closer study will
reveal another important characteristic the strain ot
mysticism that tinges many of his conceptions. It is this
mystic inclination that explains the fascination of the
Imperial mind by glimpses of a future struggle for exist-
ence between the Christian Occident and Far Eastern
Heathendom, from which the Cross is to emerge triumph-
ant, thanks to the keen swords of modem Knights of the
Holy Grail. King Arthur is the chivalrous Emperor's
pattern none can deny his chivalry, which has captivated
even the bitter press-men of the Boulevards and we have
no reason to complain, for the prototype is a thoroughly
British one.

Of what nature is this " Yellow Peril " against which
the Emperor warns us, that danger about which so much
has been spoken and written ? It has formed a leading

THE REAL " YELLOW PERIL." 337

topic of discussion in every Occidental country. Volumes
have been written about it, some grave, s,ome gay ; some
wise, some silly. To the latter category belongs a farrago
of absurdities embodied in a "bluggy" novel published,
in 1898, under the title of The Yellow Danger, the
work of a writer who has not taken the trouble to " get
up" even as much information about the Far East as
may be gleaned from a School Board Geography Primer.
To most of the minds preoccupied with this question, the
Peril menacing Occidental civilisation is the possible irrup-
tion into Europe of a countless multitude of Chinese,
armed, equipped and trained on the Western plan, who
would bear down all opposition by reason of their vast
numbers, and would spread ruin in their track. This
spectre may be easily laid. The passages relating to
China in the Chapter on " Fighting Power " will serve
to exorcise it, at all events for many years to come.

There is, however, a real "Yellow Peril," one that
it behoves us to keep in view, to study, and to prepare
to meet as best we may. It is indicated in the second
illustration to this Chapter, the reproduction of one of
the twelve drawings the famous Tokio artist, KUBOTA
Beisen, has specially designed, from notes supplied by
myself, for this book. I . recommend this picture of the
highly probable future to the notice of those worth)'-
people who pray, night and morning, for the " awakening
of China." Were we mindful only of our own interests ;
did not philanthropy, which knows no distinction of race,
or of nationality, fill the hearts of some of us; did
greed, lusting after the fortunes to be made out of an
awakened China, not animate others ; did these opposite
feelings not combine to sway the minds of many more,
we should fervently pray that the Celestial Empire might
continue in its lethargic slumber for evermore. Once the
many millions of China call in the, hitherto despised,
aid of Western science, they will not for long be content
to employ it chiefly for the benefit of the Occident.
vv

338 THE NEW FAR EAST.

The busy factories, such as the one Kubota has pro-
phetically depicted, where docile, intelligent Chinese will
work in swarms, for fifteen hours out of the twenty-four,
under the skilled guidance of Occidentals, will, in due
course, be succeeded by similar establishments conducted,
on their own account, by scientifically - trained Chinese.
Imagination falters at the contemplation of the prospect.
What chance will the workers of the Occident, striving
daily to do less work for higher wages, have against the
teeming millions of Chinese, sober, docile, marvellously
thrifty, intelligent and skilful, working, unremittingly and
cheerfully, for pay that would keep them in comfort, but
on which no Occidental could live ? The enormous in-
dustrial development of New Japan, and the competition,
in many cases successful, it has entered into with the
Occident not only in Japan itself, but in markets hitherto
considered as virtually reserved for the products of Europe
and America supply an object-lesson that teaches us
what the Far East can do when thoroughly aroused.
But the economic condition of New Japan, the gradual,
but relatively enormous, rise in the cost of living, and, con-
sequently, in the price of labour, the spirit of combination
amongst the workers an entirely new phenomenon in
its present form leading to strikes and "lock-outs,"
all these point to the conditions that will exist, in
course of time, in China to mitigate the severity of her
competition with the Occident. These palliatives, however,
still leave the power of competition of Japan but slightly
diminished. In China, the country of slow movement,
they will take much longer to come into play, and, when
they do, the new industries of China, enjoying all the
advantages imaginable extremely cheap, intelligent, easily-
directed labour, scientifically-trained management, abundant
coal, iron in plenty, home-grown raw material of almost
every kind, widely-ramified water-transport on great rivers
and long canals, numerous ports and, by that time, an
extensive railway system will still be in a far better

INDUSTRIAL COMPETITION. 339

position to produce well and cheaply than their old-
established rivals in the Occident.

Here is food for reflection for the Occidental indus-
trial classes, high and low, especially for those who con-
tribute their labour. If a correct appreciation of the
industrial possibilities of the New Far East possibilities
that will be probabilities next year, and certainties within
this generation could be brought home to the Occidental
workers, Capital and Labour would, if not entirely bereft
of reason, cease their internecine strife. Here is a ques-
tion for our Socialists, of various shades, to consider. How
do they propose, if any of their social systems be put into
operation, to cope with the competition of the Yellow
Multitudes, to whom Socialism is as naught ? If they
could but realise the imminent danger that threatens
them, the workers of the West would, provided a spark
of sense is in their brains, abandon their present tendency
towards working less, and, by many accounts, less well,
for increased wages that render some industries barely
profitable. They, and their employers, would apply
their minds to solving the great problems of profit-sharing
by co-operation, and strive to introduce a more rational,
healthier, more economical standard of living for master
and for man. In Britain and in her Colonies the two
great causes of the workers' thriftlessness drink and
debased "sport" would have to be kept in check, in
order to face the new conditions. Truly, if the well-
grounded fear of overwhelming Far Eastern competition
cause the West to set its industrial fabric in order, the
"Yellow Peril" may yet prove a blessing in disguise.

CHAPTER IX.
RUSSIA, FRANCE AND GERMANY IN THE FAR EAST.

HATS off, everybody ! Hats off to a Power that knows
what it wants and gets it. The great Russian Empire
knows with perfect certainty what it desires, and it
obtains it, by hook or by crook, by fair means, if possible,
if not, then by foul, but it gets it. What a painful con-
trast to Britain's so-called " policy " in China in the
last thirty years of the nineteenth century 1 The British
nation, uncertainly treading paths that lead to humiliation
or to nowhere has been feebly fumbling for a line of
direction, abandoned almost as soon as it is found ; dis-
tracted by conflicting advisers, misinformed by interested,
or ignorant, counsellors, led away on unimportant side-
issues, tricked by superior diplomacy, flouted by Asiatic
arrogance, baffled at every turn, chuckling over illusory
successes truly, the spectacle of Britain struggling in the
meshes of the Far Eastern net, uttering threats she does
not carry out and exacting pledges she allows to be
broken with impunity, may well cause the Oriental to
doubt her strength. In the case of Russia, he sees plainly
the one thing that he respects above all others : power,
animated by the will to use it. We in the West, accus-
tomed for many years to look upon Russia as a "Colossus
with feet of clay," can hardly conceive the degree of awe
with which the peoples of the Far East have watched,
and continue to watch, the giant strides wherewith the
Colossus marches, ever forward, on their continent. The

RUSSIA'S ASTUTENESS 341

feet may be of clay, but they are planted with firm
step wheresoever the Colossus listeth.

That is the point that impresses Orientals so deeply, the
calm way in which Russia pursues her policy in Asia, un-
deterred by remonstrance or bluster, steadily making for
the goal she has had in view for generations. And how
wisely she proceeds 1 She never uses force when other
methods, thoroughly understood by her Semi-Asiatic mind,
will answer her purpose, but, when stern measures are
needed, employs them with a ruthlessness, prompt and
complete, that impresses the unreformed Oriental far more
than our half-hearted, philanthropic attempts to gain his
friendship by "regenerating" him. In nine cases out of
ten, the Chinese does not want to be "regenerated" to
become "civilised," like unto ourselves, would appear to
him a disaster but he is heartily afraid of a beating, and
the Power that wields the scourge is the one that looms
largest in his eyes. Russia omits nothing that may con-
tribute to increase this feeling of awe in the hearts of the
Chinese the Japanese, safely guarded in their island home
by their powerful navy, look upon Russia's advance with
less trepidation. The Government at St. Petersburg is
mindful of the necessity for upholding this prestige of
power, even in the selection of physically imposing
individuals to represent her in the Far East. The biggest
Finns in the Imperial Navy are shipped in her Asiatic
Squadron, the tallest foot-soldiers, not serving in the
regiments of the Imperial Guard, are sent to Vladivos-
tock and to Port Arthur; even the diplomatists and the
Consular officials acting in Eastern Asia are, as a rule,
tall, well. set-up men, as imposing in appearance as they
are suave in ordinary intercourse, astute in negotiation
and cunning in intrigue.

There is no service in the world whose members are
more carefully chosen, more thoroughly trained, or so
certain of being rewarded in exact accordance with the
results they achieve, than the Diplomatic and the Consular

342 THE NEW PAR EAST.

Corps of Russia in the East. (The officers of both
services are interchangeable ; a very wise provision.) In
the land of jobbery and patronage, where Officers of the
Guards, of noble birth, look down upon those of the Line
as hardly belonging to the same army, in the country of
nepotism and Palace back-stairs intrigue, two services, and
two only, are free from these evils the General Staff, and
the Diplomatic and Consular Corps serving in the East.
The privileges of the " well-born " they are worth having,
in Russia, as they include immunity from being flogged
by the Police count for nothing in the selection of the
instruments that do the Tsar's work in Asia ; fitness alone
is taken into consideration. Even the despised and hated
Jew is enrolled into this select service d'e'lite if he be
considered likely to render efficient service. His name is
"russified," and he is required to become "converted"
to the Greek Orthodox Faith, but once the "off" or
the "eff" is tacked on to his name, and he conforms
with the outward practices of the Russian Church, no
enquiry is made into the soundness of his orthodoxy. He
goes to work, and to work well, in the ranks of a service
that includes Armenians of the same mental calibre as
himself, quick-witted Poles, and plodding, learned Germans
from the Baltic Provinces, all labouring strenuously, side
by side with real Russians, towards one common end.
As to the means these absolutely efficient officials employ,
they are calculated to make the average British diplo :
matist's hair stand on end "like quills upon the fretful
porcupine," for they include everything calculated to be
of service, "from pitch-and-toss to constructive murder."
It is the nimble rouble that is pitched and tossed into
the itching palm of the Mandarin, and if an inconvenient
person disappears rather suddenly from the scene well,
it only shows how very unhealthy it is to oppose the
"manifest destiny" of a great Empire. It is not always
convenient to kidnap undesirable people, as was done in
the case of Prince Alexander of Bulgaria. Those who

I

.... Russian Frontier before IS.58

bKi-lling. x Russian Frontier after Treaty of Aigun,

FORMfjSAOR _ 1858, (Murevieff Treaty).

, il thereby.

Russian Frontier after Treaty of 18CO,..
(Primorsk-lissuri Treaty),
and territory aci|uired thereby
Russian territory acquired by Treatj

with Japan, 1875

Russian "Sphere of Influence"
after Cassini Convention , 189C

Trans Siberian-Railway _

. kicking

RUSSIA'S ADVANCE IN THE FAR EAST, 1858 TO 1898.
Drawn, under the direction of the Author, by H. J. EVANS.

AND OMNISCIENCE; AN EXAMPLE. 343

saw, as I did, the long benches outside the handsome
building of the Russian Legation at Bucharest, in the days
when the late Gospodin Hitrovo was Minister, filled
with rows of bravos " waiting for a job " rascaldom
from every part of the Balkan Peninsula, bristling with
weapons know what "shady" individuals can be of use,
at times, in the furtherance of a policy of Orthodox
Christian civilisation.

No detail is considered too petty for deep consideration
by Russia's agents in the East. Every scrap of informa-
tion is received, checked, tabulated, not as with us to
lie forgotten in a dusty pigeon-hole, but to be instantly
referred to when required, emendations being added, when-
ever necessary, to keep the information up to date. These
renseignements embrace every subject that can be con-
sidered likely to prove useful in the work of the par-
ticular agency that collects them. They are gleaned,
partly locally, partly at other agencies, that transmit
them to headquarters on the banks of the Neva, whence
they are disseminated to the offices likely to make good
use of them. A case in point occurs to me as I write.
At a certain, politically important, centre in Asia, a
vacancy in the representation of Britain had just been
filled up. The appointment of the new incumbent of the
post had been gazetted, and he was on his way to take
up the duties. The Russian representative on the spot
enquired, in conversation with a colleague, the Consul of
another European Power, whether he knew anything of
" ce nouvel Anglais qui nous arrive." No, the cher
collogue knew nothing at all about Her Britannic Majesty's
new representative. " Ah ! " said the Muscovite, lighting
another papiros of fragrant Sa?nsun krepki, " I do. He
is a very clever and energetic official, a soldier, formerly
a Captain in the Royal Blankshire Fusiliers, tall, thin, and
athletic. He is a bachelor, a good shot and, mirabile dictu,
speaks three European languages and two Oriental ones !
He is not a hard drinker, but he is an inveterate smoker.

344 THE NEW FAR EAST.

His pet fad is collecting postage-stamps. Cest bon &
noter." " You know him, then ? " was the rejoinder.
" Not in the least. But I have heard," said the Tsar's
officer, who had received a despatch from Russia that
morning giving him all these particulars, and many more
important ones, about the man against whom he was
soon to be pitted in the diplomatic struggle, an unequal
one from the outset, for the Russian, admirably backed
up by his Government, had all the chances in his favour
as against the unfortunate British officer, considered by his
own Foreign Office as a sentinelle perdue, to be com-
municated with, and heard from, as rarely as possible.
"No news, good news" is an adage of much comfort to
the Downing Street Permanent Official.

The men who work for Russia in the Far East enjoy
advantages over their colleagues of other nations and
especially over their British antagonists that spring from
racial causes. The educated Russian is an excellent
linguist. I lay stress on the word " educated," because
it is a common fallacy that all Russians speak several
languages. In comparison with the vast population of
the Empire, the linguists are few, but they excel in
the languages they acquire. Not only do they learn the
tongues of the Far East with greater facility, and speak
them more fluentty, and with a far better pronuncia-
tion and intonation, than Britons, who seldom lose
their insular inflections I know Englishmen who, after
a residence of years in Osaka, persist in calling
it " Osahka," or even " Osahker " but they have
the inestimable advantage of being able to learn the
languages before proceeding to the Far East, in the
excellent, practical School the Russian Government main-
tains for the purpose. France, Germany, Italy, the
Netherlands, even Austria-Hungary, all possess special
Schools for the same purpose. Britain does not. Com-
ment is superfluous. Besides the priceless toon of a
facility of tongues, and a readiness to make use of them

ENGLISPI INSULARITY. 345

rare in Britons I know some Britons who know two or
three foreign languages, theoretically, remarkably well, but
you might live with them for a year and not be aware of
their knowledge ; they never practise, and consequently
speak falteringly, with an atrocious accent the Russians
possess an inborn faculty, due to the Asiatic strain in their
blood, of adaptation to Oriental surroundings. The Russian
can feel perfectly at home amongst Asiatics the Briton,
except in very rare cases, never does. The Russian
understands the Far Eastern, and especially the Chinese,
mind to the average Briton it mostly remains a sealed
book. I have known many Britons, Englishmen in
particular, who have spent the best years of their life
amongst Asiatics, and possess a wide knowledge of their
language, their institutions, their manners and customs,
but who are as totally ignorant of the processes of the
native mind, the true feelings of the native heart, as on
the day they left Mincing Lane, or " the sweet, shady side
of Piccadilly."

Their sympathetic intuition stands the Russians in
good stead. Not only do they thoroughly understand
the Far Easterns, but the latter understand them.
They can appreciate Russia's aim, they understand
Russia's methods, her virtues and her vices, not so very
unlike their own. We, on the contrary, are a stand-
ing puzzle to them, as they are to most of us. Our
objects appear to them vague and illusory, our methods
queer and wrong-headed, our amusements sheer lunacy, our
virtues pale and negative, our vices incomprehensible. (I
am dealing, of course, only with the opinions of the
Oriental whose mind has not undergone the influences of
education of the Occidental type.) When the British
Minister makes representations, however serious, to the
Tsung-li-Yamen, bringing forward cogent reasons and lucid
argument, he often leaves the Chinese negotiators, half
cunning, half pigheaded, wondering at His Excellency's
speeches and at the motives of the Government that

346 THE NEW PAR EAST.

instructed him. When Gospodin Pavloff retires, in high
dudgeon, from the Conference Room, after thumping the
large round table, so as to make the little saucers of
sweetmeats dance, wherewith the Chinese Board of Foreign
Affairs regale their exasperated interviewers, the wise men
of the Yam$n the angry words and threats of the Tsar's
representative still ringing in their ears understand perfectly
well what he requires of them in furtherance of his
country's plain policy. They believe in the reality of his
menaces, for they know the Tsar has the power, and, if
he must come to extremities, the will to execute them
and the members of the Board, too, for the matter of that
and, in accordance with the concluding words of Chinese
Imperial Rescripts, they "Tremble and Obey."

Russia's methods are not always of the violent type.
Her arguments are frequently persuasive, nay, seductive.
A Russian official, who had long experience in China, once
said : " There is but one way to negotiate with a Mandarin :
hold a thousand rouble note in your left hand, and take
two turns of his pigtail round your right." Much as the
Chinese corrupt official there are a few incorruptible
ones likes to be offered " temptations," he, none the less,
entertains, in common with all his countrymen, a profound
respect for the man who dares to browbeat him success-
fully. He shares this feeling with the Russian. A Mus-
covite isvostchik who was soundly drubbed by an irate
" fare " he had upset in the snow, climbed on to his
little perch on the sleigh, rubbing his bruised shoulder,
with the exclamation of involuntary admiration : " Mala-
dietz/" (" What a fellow ! There's a man for you ! ")

Just so the Chinese, who looks up to the man who
carries a big stick, and uses it on occasion. It is in
this respect that Britain commits a grave error in her
dealings with China. Her " big stick " the splendid fleet
she keeps in Far Eastern waters is well in evidence j the
mischief is that no one in Eastern Asia believes that she
ever intends to use it.

JRUSSfA'S ONE REAL NEED. 347

Russia has, I have endeavoured to explain, an admirable
staff to do her work in Eastern Asia. These devoted
men spend laborious days, and nights, in working, on lines
I have indicated, to obtain, as far as in them lies, the
realisation of their country's ardent desire. What is it,
then, that Russia wants ? To the mind of the average,
Non-Russian, and Non-French, observer, there would seem
to be but one possible answer to this question. Russia's
great want is, of course, some real civilisation : education
for the besotted, illiterate, superstitious, dirty and un-
healthy millions of " the Black People," the good, poor,
suffering masses of the huge Empire, whose virtues are all
their own, whose vices are all those of the system of
alternate repression and neglect under which they vege-
tate ; sanitation, both material and moral a stiff broom
to sweep the filth not only, materially, from the reeking
St. Petersburg tenement-house and the peasant's log-hut,
but also, morally, from the hundreds of Government offices
where thousands of underpaid Tchinovniki batten on the
people, robbing the poor and the rich, the muzhik and the
Tsar ; peace, to allow of the development of her marvel-
lous resources ; toleration, to permit her people to worship
God in the way that seems to them the best ; and, last,
but chief of all, liberty, just a little liberty to begin with,
in a mild, tentative sort of way, merely the right of the
subjects to their own souls and bodies, the right to speak,
to read, to write, to lie down at night unhaunted by the
ghastly fear of an enemy's malicious denunciation, of the
midnight police-raid, the exile " by Administrative Order "
and Siberia. Surely, that is what Russia wants, with
a wide re-opening of that "window facing Europe" that
Peter the Great first opened, and that has now been shut for
some years, and bolted and barred by the Procurator of
the Holy Synod, Gospodin Pobedonostzeff, partly a Rus-
sian pinchbeck imitation of the Grand Inquisitor Torque-
mada, partly a weak replica of General Booth. A little
of the fresh, free air of heaven, let in to vivify the

348 THE NEW FAR EAST.

stifling, grovelling masses, surely that is Russia's pressing
need ?

Not a bit of it, at least not in the opinion of the vast
majority of the Russian people. A small, a very small,
proportion of the population may sigh for all, or for
some, of these desiderata, but that proportion is either in
the mines, working in chains, probably, or breaking its
heart in the dreariness of " internment " in an unsavoury
Yakut ulus out in the taiga, the Siberian " bush," or in exile
in Switzerland, or in a London suburb, or living a hunted
life in Russia itself. An infinitesimal fraction of it lives
in Palaces, talks treason an average number of the
Times contains two or three columns of treason, from the
Russian Censor's point of view in whispers, over glasses
of tea-and-lemon, and sometimes does the most daring
things, deeds to subvert an Empire such as pinning
pathetic appeals, or threatening manifestos, to the Tsar's
arm-chair. But all of them together are as a drop in
the great ocean of the Russian majority that asks for
none of those things which seem to us so essential, knows
them not and does not feel the want of them.

What, then, does the Russian majority want ? Its
plausible friends in our midst assure us that it only
wants to get to the sea, to the real, open sea, not to
narrow waters like the Baltic, ice-bound in almost every
port in winter, nor to " closed seas " like the Black Sea,
where Turkey could "bottle up" the Russian fleet by
closing the Bosphorus, just as a possible future Nelson
might seize the narrow straits between Denmark and Scan-
dinavia, and " bottle up " the Tsar's Baltic Squadron. Russia,
they say, wants to get access to an ocean open the whole
year round, not rendered impassable by ice for several
months, like the White Sea, nor to be forced only by
powerful ice-breakers, like the Pacific at Vladivostock.
With this craving for an outlet to the free ocean every-
one must needs sympathise. One cannot expect that a
nation of nearly one hundred and thirty millions will for

&t7SSL4*S AMBITIONS. 349

ever remain content to be confined within a bottle with
four narrow necks, three of them ice-bound every winter,
and the fourth at all times at the mercy of a foreign,
and probably hostile, Power. Russia's irresistible impulse
towards the open sea is but natural ; it is justified, and
no power on earth can permanently arrest what is moving
with the momentum of an elemental force. Britain's busi-
ness is to see to it that Russia reaches the sea only at
such places, and under such conditions, as will involve
the least damage to British interests.

But Russia wants more than mere access to the open
sea. Russia wants to rule, in the first place, over China ;
absolutely over Manchuria, Mongolia and Northern China
proper, then over Chinese Turkestan as far as the Pamir
table-land ; indirectly over the whole of China. No
" Spheres of Influence " for Russia, or, rather, one vast
" Sphere of Influence," Russian influence, to wit, conter-
minous with the borders of the Chinese Empire. And
Russia knows that once she has firmly established her
rule, call it " Suzerainty," " Protectorate," " Influence," or
what you will, over China, she will be the mistress of
three-fourths of Asia, together with her partner, France,
and that is what Russia wants. Nor does her ambition
stop there. She wants to rule over Asia, and to control
Europe too, ay, and as much of the rest of the globe as
she can place under her influence. Russia wants as much of
the world as she can get hold of, because Russia believes,
firmly, implicitly, that it is her "manifest destiny" to be
a World-Power, a greater Rome, a stronger and more
Imperial Britain. " Russia first, and the rest nowhere ! "
That is the idea implanted in every Russian mind, the wish
imbedded in every Russian heart, but not in the manner
of theoretical Chauvinism, that sentimental patriotism that
makes the people of every great nation desire to see
theirs placed first amongst the Powers ; no, this Russian
patriotism is more of the ardent, irresistible, Japanese type ;
it is more than a national feeling, because it is a religion.

350 THE NEW FAR EAST.

To absorb new territory means, to the Briton, to
secure a large space where he can find fresh customers for
his wares, and grow produce to sell " at home," or in other
countries ; a place where his superabundant sons, and
daughters too, sometimes, may make new homes for
themselves and become self-supporting ; he even looks
upon it as a convenient "dumping-ground" for his ne'er-
do-weels, the scapegraces who are supposed to undergo
an instantaneous and complete moral reformation the
moment they land in the dependency, where half-a-
dozen whiskey-bars face them on the wharf. To the
Frenchman, the conquest of a "Colony," so-called, means
the opportunity of a number of people to live at the
public expense, with the additional delights of being in-
vested with authority, and having an official title and a
uniform. Moreover, it is flattering to the nation's self-
esteem ; there is a dash of heroism and romance about
it. To the German, the seizure of another "Colony,"
also so-called, for it attracts but few colonists, means
very much the same as to the Frenchman, with this
difference, that the German makes an honest and deter-
mined effort to trade there, and that he can enjoy himself
to his heart's content by ordering the natives about in
sharp, barrack-yard tones.

Each nation has its own ideal of enjoyment. The
Briton is happiest when he can do "as he jolly well
pleases " ; the Frenchman is glad when he can make
someone else do what he, the Frenchman, likes ; the
German, especially the Prussian, rejoices when he can
make somebody do what that somebody does not like.
All three nations look upon colonies and dependencies
with favour, although from opposite points of view.
The Russian regards his conquests in quite another
light. To him they are not only regions promising
a rich harvest of profit, they are lands where he
will continue his holy mission the Russification of the
World. Gradually he goes to work, ruthlessly " russifying "

" A> USSIFICA TIONr 351

by force, where force is the best method, operating per-
suasively, with great tact, where violence would fail.
Above all, he encourages the native to become a Russian,
especially in the matter of religion, by holding out social
inducements, a line of conduct the Briton never adopts,
save in a half-hearted manner. Ask anyone just returned
from a British settlement in Africa whether the converted,
"civilised" Negro, or Kaffir, is made welcome in white
society. In India, the British are more friendly to the
native who remains faithful to his own customs, his tradi-
tions, and his creed, than to the "civilised" native, who
wears European clothes and has taken his B.A. degree at
an Indian, or even at an English, University.* Not so
the Russian. He takes to his heart the Turkoman who
has abjured Islam and changed his name from Ali Khan
to " Alikhanoff." He makes much of him socially, gives
him a commission in the army, if he be a fighting chief,
confers decorations upon him, invites him to the Court
of St. Petersburg and makes him feel, generally, that he
is a Russian like himself, provided always that he has
submitted to the process of " russification." He must be
made much of, for he is a useful tool in the great work
of making Russia Mistress of the World. Yes, Russia the
World-Power, that is the idea. As it happens, a some-
what similar idea with regard to Britain has its seat in
every British brain. Hence the trouble in the present
and the future.

In her plans for the subjugation of China, Russia has,
of course, the devoted assistance of her " dear friend and
ally," France, who supports all her efforts diplomatically,
and aids her with what is much more important money.
Russia's wonderful railway across Asia, .the great Trans-
Siberian Line, is being built with French capital, and the

* An exception to this rule is made when the native plays high-class
cricket with consummate skill. In such case, the white community in India
condescend to intimacy with him. The rest of the British race make a
demi-god of him.

35* THE NEW PAR EAST.

greater part of the industrial enterprises that are develop-
ing, at a prodigious rate, the resources of Russia, in Europe
and in Asia, derive their funds, and much of the energy
and of the scientifically -trained skill with which they are
being conducted, from France. I have it on the authority
of one of London's leading financiers, a man well known
for the accuracy of his information and the prudence of
his statements, that the amount lent to Russia, in one
way or another, by French investors reached, in 1897, the
enormous total of three hundred million pounds sterling.
This immense sum includes the French capital invested in
industrial undertakings in the Russian Empire, but a great
part of it represents money lent to the Russian State.
Now, what has France, as a nation, got in return for this
extraordinary display of confidence ? The individual in-
vestors in the Russian Funds receive their interest regu-
larly Russia is scrupulously careful to keep up her credit,
and during the Crimean War she paid the interest due to
her creditors even amongst those who were fighting against
her and many of the Russian undertakings financed in
Paris earn dividends, but what has the Republic received
in exchange for all this French money ? Two kisses. The
Tsar kissed President Faure on both cheeks at their meeting
in St. Petersburg. That is at the rate of one hundred and
fifty millions sterling per kiss. Our Metropolitan Police
Magistrates value them, on occasion, at a considerably lower
rate, as sundry fines, reported in the press, do testify.

Signs are not wanting that the French people are
beginning to chafe at the one-sided nature of their alliance
with Russia, but it is a fact that, were the compact to
terminate in Europe, it would endure for years to come,
if Russia so desired, in the Far East. The motive of this
strange "union of hearts" is, on the part of the French,
not love for Russia but hatred, blind hatred, of Germany
and of Britain. The former feeling is easily accounted
for such a crushing defeat as proud, sensitive France
suffered in 1870-71 must rankle for many years. Her

FRANCE AND ENGLAND. 353

animosity against Britain is more complex and less logical,
Jealousy is at the bottom of it, and unreasoning spite, as
some of France's worthiest and wisest men those whose
warning voices are drowned in the popular clamour
sorrowfully admit. The French are straining every nerve
to carry out, in Asia as in Africa, that policy of expansion
that was devised by her regenerators to restore the nation's
confidence in itself, so rudely shaken by her collapse under
the blows of Germany. It was necessary to show the
French people, unnerved by the disasters of the war and
the horrors of the Commune, that victory would yet follow
the tricolour, that the bells of Notre Dame could still
peal for triumphs achieved by French arms. The victories
were over Tunisian soldiery, Annamite and Tong-king
rabble, feint-hearted Malagasy, and brave, but ill-equipped,
Dahomeyans, it is true, but they were triumphs all the
same, very similar to many of those the British army
achieves in various of our "little wars," and they gave
back to the French that belief in their own prowess that
puts life into nations. Unfortunately for the peace and
concord of two great peoples, near neighbours who ought
to be close friends, the French policy of expansion beyond
the seas brought them, and still brings them, into perilous
contact with Britain's outposts throughout the world. The
same thing occurs in the case of Germany's attempts to
found a " World- Empire." It is, naturally, extremely gall-
ing to the Frenchman, or the German, who enters territory
he has "marked down" for his own the black, brown, or
yellow owner is not consulted in the matter to find a
Scotchman there selling something. So the Gaul and the
Teuton unite in vituperation of "perfidious Albion," and
repeat the phrase so often that it has passed into an
article of belief.

Animated by these unfriendly feelings towards Britain,

France has lost no opportunity, in the last decade of the

nineteenth century, to exert her influence in the Far East

against Britain's interests. And her influence is great,

x

354 THE NEW FAR EAST.

especially in China, owing to the proximity of her Indo-
Chinese possessions, of whose vast extent the average
Briton has but a faint notion, and to the number, the
energy and the indomitable courage of the Roman
Catholic Missionaries, of French nationality, whom she
protects in China. The role of France in the Far East is,
indeed, an important one. She is gradually, but surely,
extending her paramount influence in Yun - nan and
Kwang-si. Her Missionaries, every one of whom acts as
an " agent in advance " to further her interests, penetrate
into the most remote districts, her engineers are making
surveys on Chinese soil for the railways that are to open up
communications with the trade-routes in her Indo-Chinese
dominion, in competition with the British railway from
Upper Burma into China, about which we have been
talking, talking, talking, and writing, writing, writing so
much and doing so little. The Consular Agents of
France travel through Southern China horn end to end,
and so do her officials from Tong-king, who have a pecu-
liar way of enjoying their " leave season." Their pastime
in that holiday period often consists in sailing on the
waters of the Yang-tsze, or clambering in the passes and
gorges of Yun-nan and of Sze-chuen, accompanied by large
escorts of their Annamite and Tong-king soldiers, fully
armed and equipped, and by French officers, in uniform
all the time. The Chinese authorities look on in a dazed
sort of way, and make no protest. If Britain attempted
a similar course of action the Tsung-li Yam&n would
worry our Minister about it to the verge of exasperation.
But France is the friend of Russia ; China feels the two
halves of the Russo-French nut-cracker closing on her,
North and South, .and is helpless and powerless to resist
the steady, unrelenting pressure.

To add to China's troubles, Germany, after many years
ot close commercial intercourse, and of great influence,
due, chiefly, to the fact that she posed as the disinterested
friend, has driven her wedge into the Celestial Empire.

THE "MAILED FIST" EXPEDITION. 355

She has secured, at Kiao-chau, an excellent harbour and
coaling-station for her China Squadron, that is to be a
powerful one when the Kaiser's aspirations to sea-power
proceed towards realisation. The " Mailed Fist " ex
pedition raised a smile at its grandiloquent " send off,"
and its slow progress across the seas, but it achieved im-
portant moral effects. The interview Prince Henry of
Prussia had with the Son of Heaven, an interview ob-
tained from the Government at Peking by threats it knew
were meant to be carried out, convinced the Mandarins
that they had to deal with a Power that would "stand
no nonsense." That is the object to be aimed at in all
relations with China. Russia, and her ally, France, and
Germany, who sides with them when it suits her con-
venience, have inspired the ruling class of China with a
terror that is worth, to these masterful Powers, a whole
cartload of Treaties and Conventions. What use Russia
and her subservient partner intend to make of their power
in China is plainly evident. Russia aims at supreme con-
trol, and will let France, whose thrifty people have sup-
plied her with the sinews of war, have a share of the
spoil. Germany's object is a different one. Her lust is
not so much after territory in the Far East. She required
a base for her operations, a Stiitzpunkt, and she has got
it, and an excellent one, at Kiao - chau. There she
can, under her own flag, lay her plans for the Far
Eastern phase of the commercial and industrial contest
with Britain she is waging, with remarkable success, all
over the world. Russia's industries cannot, for many
years to come, supply the markets of Northern and
Central China with all the manufactures they require.
She will not object to Germany's sharing in the business
if British products can thereby be ousted.

Russia remains the chief factor of the situation, and
the White Tsar holds the future of China in his hand,
unless a stronger Power exerts its might and wrests the
supremacy from him.

356

CHAPTER X.
BRITAIN'S CLEAR COURSE.

THE course is clear that lies before Britain in the Far
East. It is plainly marked on the chart of history. Every
rock ahead, every shoal is clearly indicated by the survey
of experience, every current is traced, so that the pilot
may steer with unerring confidence. Yet, at the close
of the nineteenth century, the good ship British Policy
is stranded, high and dry, at the mouth of the Pei-ho,
and on a coast that her captain ought to know better
than a shipmaster of any other nation.

"Ah!" I hear the Reader exclaim, "now for an
indictment of the conduct of Britain's affairs in the Far
East ! " And, according to his particular political con-
victions, he prepares to approve or to blame. If he be
an opponent of the policy of the Marquess of Salisbury,
or one of the "Revolted Tories," whom the Far Eastern
Crisis drove into mutiny, he will applaud when I state
that the interests of Britain are indeed in jeopardy in
Eastern Asia, that she has lost the proud position of
absolute paramount influence that was hers for so long,
that the efforts made to retrieve her vanished prestige
have been inadequate, and that the small successes inci-
dentally gained, and paraded with much solemnity,
have been, to a great extent, illusory. " There ! " he will
say, " I knew it 1 Such a miserably weak, vacillating,
futile policy was never seen before ! " But, desiring
to be strictly impartial, I am compelled to give heart

GREAT BRITAIN'S BLUNDER. 357

of grace to his political opponents, the stalwarts of the
Unionist Party, by affirming my conviction that, had
his side been in office, they would have fared just as
badly or worse. Whatever party might have been in
office during 1897 and 1898, the results of its Far Eastern
policy were, almost inevitably, foredoomed to be in-
adequate for the maintenance of Britain's interests and
prestige. "The stars in their courses" were righting
against us, it might appear, so persistently did ill-luck
attend one after another of the honest and strenuous, but
ill-directed, efforts that were made to keep British policy
on a successful course. Those who guided these efforts
were but reaping the results of years of ignorance and
neglect on the part of remote predecessors, who be-
.queathed to successive Secretaries of State incorrect infor-
mation, antiquated and futile methods, and inadequate
means of carrying out even these. An inexorable fatality
that attends a wrongly-conceived policy drives it from
bad to worse, and Britain's course of action towards
China, having acquired a twist in the wrong direction in
the 'seventies, under the entirely erroneous impression that
China was a valuable and potent ally in case of need
went on increasing its deviation from the true line from
year to year. Blunder followed on blunder, all arising
from the original error, and each mistake, more serious
than the last, whittling away a large slice of that prestige,
that respect for our power, and that fear of our anger,
that forms the foundation of our position in China. In
the meantime, new factors were being introduced into the
Far Eastern situation, at first hardly noticeable, or treated
by us with good-humoured contempt, but growing apace
until they became the formidable elements we must now
take into consideration at every step of our Far Eastern
action.

In the last twenty-five years of the century, great
Powers have appeared on the scene in Eastern Asia, for
the first time, with whom we have now to reckon, but

358 THE NEW FAR EAST.

our policy and our methods have not been adapted to
meet the changed conditions. Where we stood alone face
to face with the Far Eastern peoples, almost the only
great Occidental Power they knew, we are now sur-
rounded by active, well-equipped competitors, carrying
out policies, based on sound knowledge, by modern means
suited to the end in view.

Had those in charge of Britain's policy, in the event-
ful years 1897 an d 1898, cast off the old methods, had
they taken a leaf out the book of our chief opponent in
Asia, Russia, and acted with the firmness the situation
demanded, would such a course have been crowned with
success ? I venture to say that the result would have
been but little more satisfactory or, rather, but slightly
less unsatisfactory than has actually been the case. This
seems, at first sight, a paradox, for, surely, the complete
change of our policy and methods from effeteness to
vigour, from futility to efficiency, must have surmounted
all obstacles in our way ? Not necessarily ; the real
cause of the failure of our policy lies deep indeed. The
whole nation is responsible for its existence, not only the
Ministers who bear the blame. It behoves every patriot
to examine its nature and to strive with might and main
to remove the defect. The cause is lack of sufficient
Strength.

Powerful as Britain undeniably is, supreme as she is at
sea, the growth of her defensive, and of her offensive forces
in modern war the terms are, in our case, practically
synonymous has not kept pace with the expansion of
her world-wide Empire, nor with the power to harm her
of her possible foes. This lamentable fact has never been
more apparent than during the crisis in the Far East.
Had Britain opposed the machinations of Russia, and of
France, at the critical moment, with a firm declaration
that any attempt on their part to coerce China into an
attitude opposed to our interests, any encroachment on
Chinese territory calculated to imperil the integrity of the

"EVEN AT THE COST OF WAR." 359

Chinese Empire, any slamming of the "Open Door,"
would be resisted by force of arms, she would have been
taken at her word. It would have meant War. Truly,
we spoke of the contingency of war. A Cabinet Minister
flourished the words "even at the cost of war" in a
famous speech, but it was only in a Pickwickian sense,
and the attempted "bluff" fell flat. It did not cause
Russia to deviate from her course by a hair's breadth ; it
did not, in the end, cause China to respect our power
one whit the more. The Briton has a good conceit of
the national might, but the sane man would be hard to
find who would have advocated an attempt on the part
of Britain to oppose by force of arms the policy in the
Far East of Russia and France, possibly supported, openly
or covertly, by Germany, in 1898. I am aware that this
statement may be opposed by some who proudly point
to our superiority in lighting power, and in coal resources,
in Far Eastern waters. "Why," they say triumphantly,
"we could, unaided, drive the fleets of our antagonists off
the China seas, and our indisputable command of the lines
of maritime communication would prevent our opponents
from reinforcing their troops in Eastern Asia, \and from
forwarding fresh supplies of stores to their strongholds in
those regions, save by the long and difficult overland
route, by the way of Siberia, almost impracticable for pur-
poses of w^ar until the great Trans - Continental Railway is
completed." \

Those "who reason in this way overlook the fact that
the struggle would have to be fought out not in the Far
East only, but in Europe itself. The die would be cast,
not in the Yellow Sea, but in the English Channel; the
decisive naval action would be fought in the Straits of
Dover, or off the Canaries, or near the Azores ; the pitched
battles on land would take place not in the vicinity of
Peking, but in the forests of Finland, or on the plains of
Northern France. Those who talk glibly of the certainty
of Britain's overcoming, in the end, the united might of

366 THE NEW FAR EAST.

Russia and of France base their forecast entirely on our
undoubted superiority at sea to either of the allies, and,
in all likelihood, taking into consideration the excellence
of our naval personnel, to both of them combined. They
forget that the defeat of their naval forces would not
necessarily involve for Russia and France the absolute
national ruin that would attend the destruction of Britain's
sea - power, were such an eventuality imaginable. The
British navy could, no doubt, destroy the maritime com-
merce of both our opponents ; they would not be staggered
by the blow, for France's merchant shipping is small in
importance relatively to her population and her coast-line,
whilst Russia's mercantile fleet might be swept off the
seas without crippling the nation to any appreciable extent.
Granted that, in such a conflict, Britain had driven the
hostile flags off the ocean, hostilities might be indefinitely
prolonged, the protracted state of tension working incal-
culable injury to her industries, for, victorious at sea, she
would lack the powerful land forces requisite to deliver
what Sir Charles Dilke has called "the counterstroke "
against the huge armaments within her enemies' frontiers.
France can be really conquered only at Paris, Russia only
at Moscow. To overcome these giants one must strike
at the heart. For such an enterprise against two great
nations in arms Britain lacks the requisite military strength,
the hundreds of thousands of trained soldiers, led by
Generals experienced in handling, scientifically, vast bodies
of men. She can find men in abundance, even men with
some sort of military training, strong, hardy, brave as
lions, but she cannot, as yet and for some time to come,
place in the field a homogeneous force, practically, and
constantly, organised, equipped, and trained for war in
one word, an Army large enough to undertake operations
against the immense fighting-machines of great Continental
Powers like Russia and France.

The Man in the Street has some inkling of this fact, as
may be inferred from the eagerness with which he catches

GREAT BRITAIN AND JAPAN. 361

at the idea of an alliance, or, rather, alliances, that would
provide Britain, in his opinion, with the military power in
which she is deficient. Not that he will openly admit
that the deficiency exists ; in his heart, filled with intense,
and justifiable, pride of race, misgivings as to Britain's
power on land struggle with the conviction that one
Briton is a match for any three foreigners. But the idea
of alliances is a soothing one, and the degree of the
attraction it exercises on the public mind may be gauged
by the readiness with which every indication of a probable
co-operation of foreign nations is acclaimed by the masses.
It is taken for granted by nearly every Briton that the
assistance of Japan's powerful navy and excellent army is
assured to Britain in the event of hostilities in the Far
East. The wish is father to the thought, but it would be
unwise to look upon such an alliance as a foregone
conclusion. The interests of Britain and of Japan in Asia
being so largely identical, common-sense points to com-
bined action in case of need as inevitable, yet there are
obstacles in the way that are not sufficiently appreciated
by the British nation. There exists in Japan a very con-
siderable party opposed to the idea of any foreign alliance,
holding that the wisest course for the nation to pursue is
an opportunist policy, keeping aloof from engagements that
might prove embarrassing, and profiting, as occasion arises,
by the rivalries of the various Occidental Powers. Another
large, and influential, section of the population is in favour
of co-operation with Britain in the Far East, but demands
a compact, guaranteeing immunity for Japan from the
risks attending, in the opinion of this party, an alliance
with us. The Japanese are keen students of modem
history, and they note, with feelings of pardonable un-
easiness, the fatality that seems to pursue natiors which
throw in their lot with Britain, and help to fight her
battles. Without going back to the days of the Crimean
Avar, and considering the fate of Shamyl and his undaunted
Circassians, the Japanese find food for reflection in the

362 THE NEW FAR EAST.

case of the Swazi nation, who stood by the British in
many a hard-fought tussle in South Africa, and were
" rewarded" for their assistance by being handed over to
the tender mercies of "Oom Paul" and his Boers, and in
the doom of the Jaalin, and other " Friendlies," destroyed,
root and branch, by the Khalifa's savage Baggara for the
unpardonable sin of having borne arms for Britain. Such
"awful examples" are well calculated to alarm the cautious
Japanese, who seek for guarantees that they would not be
abandoned to the vengeance of Russia and her all}*, should
Britain, in the event of combined action with Japan
against their common foes, retire prematurely from the
contest, patching up a hasty, and inconclusive, peace for
the sake of her commerce and her industries, crippled by
war on a vast scale.

Finally, there are Japanese, and they are in the
majority, who doubt not only Britain's earnestness in the
protection of her assailed interests in Eastern Asia, which
are almost entirely parallel with those of Japan, but are
even sceptical as to her ability to defend those interests
by force of arms. They admit the great strength of our
navy, whilst criticising some of its shortcomings especially
the want of a perfect system of Reserves for adequately
supplying the trained officers and men required to fill
up the vacancies caused by the large number of casualties
inseparable from modern naval warfare but to say that they
are not impressed by our land forces is to state the case
very mildly. Accustomed to look upon the German army
as the criterion in all military matters, they compare ours
with the Kaiser's great machine of " Blood and Iron,"
with its perfect, simple, well-lubricated gearing, that
obeys, silently arid swiftly, with unerring accuracy, the
impulsion of the master-minds trained in Moltke's school,
and the result is not in favour of our complicated and
costly military system, with its many anomalies, its waste
of energy and of wealth. Warriors to a man, holding
the militant professions in almost superstitious reverence,

TWO KINDS OP ARMIES. 363

they fail to understand the spirit of a nation that cheers
itself, hoarse over the deeds of heroism of its sailors and
its soldiers and pays a certain small minority of its
sons to do its fighting for it. The Japanese who read
the account in the London newspapers of the wildly
enthusiastic reception accorded by the populace to the
battalion of Grenadier Guards returning from the admi-
rably-planned and executed capture of Omdurman, noted,
with feelings of pained astonishment we can hardly
appreciate, the answer given by a stalwart Corporal to
an energetic reporter, who enquired : " Well, how was
it ? " " We've fairly earned our pay ! " quoth the Guards-
man, and his comrades within earshot assented heartily.
" Our pay ! " These words in the mouth of a con-
quering hero have a strange ring in the ears of
the Japanese, who cannot conceive why the patriotic
British remain the only European nation that refuses
to enter in its Statutes the assertion of every man's
bounden duty to be trained for the defence of his native
land.

To these considerations, inclining the Japanese to under-
estimate Britain's Fighting Power, must be added the influ-
ence of the constant carping criticism of all British methods
dinned into their ears for many years past by Occidentals
from every country of Continental Europe, and until
recently from America, repeating their dismal prophecies
of the decline of Britain's power, many Japanese swelling
the Anti-British chorus with echoes of Anglophobe ravings
heard in their student-days in Paris, in Berlin, in Vienna,
in St. Petersburg, or in Chicago. The most severe blow
to that British prestige which alone can make an Anglo-
Japanese co-operation possible has been given by Britain
herself. The vacillating, weak policy pursued by her
Government during the troublous times in China, in 1897
and 1898, served to intensify the feeling, so actively fos-
tered amongst the Japanese parties just enumerated, that
Britain's hand had become palsied, that her resolution

364 THE NEW FAR EAST.

had forsaken her. The Japanese friends of Britain waited
anxiously for a sign that the old British spirit was
awakening, that the lion had not lost his might in
his long lethargy. Twice, or thrice, they thought the
moment had come. Brave words were uttered by British
statesmen, British warships, ominously ready to translate
those words into deeds, cruised on mysterious errands,
and the rulers of Japan's policy thought another day
would bring that startling proof of Britain's virility which
would silence her detractors amongst their own people and
would irresistibly lead to the alliance they feel in theii
hearts must come for the mutual benefit of both nations.
Alas 1 Their hopes were shattered. The brave words
were followed by paltry deeds ; the great warships
returned from their aimless yachting cruises and Russia
went marching on. Once only did Britain rise to the
highest level of patriotic determination, standing firm as
a rock in defence of her interests but that was not in
the Far East, not in the face of Russia and her ally ; it
was in Africa, and the possible foe was France alone, for
the extraordinary compact between the Autocrat and the
Republic, uniting them so closely in Asia, does not,
apparently, extend to the region of the Upper Nile.
Britain's firmness of front had some effect on the minds
of the peoples of Eastern Asia, but, on second thoughts,
it only increased the impression, actively propagated by
Britain's enemies, that Africa would, in future, absorb
all her energies, and that she was content, with that end
in view, to relinquish, almost without a struggle the
paramount position she had won for herself, and so
long maintained, in the Far East.

If the alliance of Japan with Britain is thus not the
matter of absolute certainty it is so generally thought to be,
still less ground is there for the comforting belief, so preva-
lent towards the close of 1898, that the co-operation of
Germany in the Far East is assured to Britain in her
opposition to the schemes of Russia and of France. The

BRITAIN AND THE UNITED STATES. 365

German Emperor cordially desires, there is no doubt about
it, a rapprochement with Britain all over the world, but
with this proviso an all-important one that his reconcilia-
tion with us shall in no wise endanger the traditional good
understanding with Russia that is the key-stone of German
policy. Moreover, the German people see the Kaiser's
improved relations with Britain with no favourable eye.
The bitter antagonism of commercial rivalry the deepest
cause of international animosities inspires them with a
jealous dislike of Britain that no Imperial change of
policy can eradicate.

There remains one possible, nay, a probable, ally to be
considered the United States of America, whose interests
in the Far East are, to a great extent, identical with those
of Britain and of Japan. Were Britain involved in a
struggle with Russia and France in the Far East, and,
consequently, all over the world, America might be trusted
to extend to her relative in difficulties if not active assist-
ance, at all events a neutrality of as benevolent a character
as that shown towards America by Britain during the war
with Spain. And that is really, for some years to come, all
that Britain needs from America, merely sympathy that
will ensure the uninterrupted supply of the food-stuffs
from across the Atlantic necessary to the existence of
the population of the British Isles. Those supplies are sure
to come, alliance or no alliance, for dollars are to be earned
by selling corn to famished people, and no mortal power
exists that can prevent an American from earning dollars
wherever they can be acquired. As to active co-operation,
the excellent navy of the United States would be a useful
ally, but not an indispensable one, whilst, with regard to
operations on land, America has no regular troops to spare
for operations beyond her own territories, soon to be so
vastly increased. Men she could supply by tens of
thousands, but persons in military uniforms are not neces-
sarily soldiers, a fact often lost sight of by the English-
speaking public on both sides of the Atlantic.

366 THE NEW FAR EAST.

The average Briton, seeing the alliances he had fondly
cherished as either existent or imminent fade into pro-
blematic visions under the search -light of dispassionate
enquiry, may well feel uneasy, and ask the question so
often propounded : " Can we not come to an understanding
with Russia ? " That would, indeed, be a glorious solution
of the Far Eastern imbroglio! Britain, Russia, France,
Germany, America and, of course, Japan, each working
peacefully in its own clearly-defined "Sphere of Influence"
to the ultimate benefit, not only of itself the prime con-
sideration in national policy but of Eastern Asia the
vision is millennial! Unfortunately, it is not likely to
commend itself to Russia, who holds the trumps of the
game in her hands. Why should she abandon the ad- -
vantages she has won by her perseverance, her boldness
and her skill ? To induce her to relinquish these, or any
of them, we must either offer her compensation, or frighten
her into dropping the cards. What can we "trade" with
Russia that will equal in value what we ask her to
abandon ? A survey of the map of the world yields no
answer to the question. The one equivalent we might, a
few years ago, have offered her we have deliberately
thrown away. As long as we remained the ally of the
Ottoman Empire, we could always hold out as a bait to
Russia our withdrawal of support from her coveted prize.
Since we have assumed, mainly for religious and senti-
mental reasons, an attitude of uncompromising hostility
towards the Sultan, now our bitter enemy, we can no
longer use Turkey as a pawn in the great diplomatic
game of chess. Russia knows that she can now work
her will in Turkey, both in Europe and in Asia, without
troubling herself about our interference. It is with
Germany and with Austria-Hungary she will have to
deal for the inheritance of that " Sick Man " who is
such an unconscionably long time in dying not with
Britain.

As to frightening Russia into abandoning her prey in

BRITAIN'S CLEAR COURSE. 367

Eastern Asia, Russia is not easily terrified. She has, it
is true, no wish to fight us yet awhile the great
Siberian Railway is not yet completed. In the mean-
time the Peace Conference, to which the Powers are
coming, each with a revolver in the hip-pocket and a
Bowie-knife in the boot, will agreeably fill up the " wait "
before the rise of the curtain on the Great Drama of
the Future of the Far East. If Britain is to be pre-
pared to play her part worthily in that epoch-making
performance, she has no time to lose. Her cue is
" Strength." Let Britain make herself strong ; absolutely,
undeniably, evidently strong, not only on sea, but on land.
This may necessitate a departure from her traditional mili-
tary system. It probably will. " What ? Universal
Compulsory Service in the Navy or the Army ? Impos-
sible! Un-English!" I think I hear the outcry, but I
know of something still more Un-English : it is called
Defeat, likewise Humiliation.

Let Britain be strong, not with the arrogant strength
of the bully, but with the calm force of the strong man
armed, determined to keep what he has worked for and
won. Let her but show her determination to increase her
power, by land as well as on the sea, to proportions com-
mensurate to the World -Empire she has to guard from
jealous competitors ; let her but give an earnest of her
resolve to defend it against all comers, and the effect
will not be slow in making itself felt. Japan will, with
one accord, become the valuable and trusty ally of her
natural friend, Britain, strong enough to command con-
fidence and respect. China will turn from her Muscovite
" Protector " 's heavy yoke and seek regeneration at the
hands of Britain whom she will trust when she once
more fears her wrath of America, soon to be an Asiatic
Power, and of Japan, best fitted of all to undertake the
task. Germany, France, Belgium, all the industrial nations
of the world will work with might and main at the de-
velopment of an untold wealth of resources". Russia, kept

3 68

THE NEW FAR EAST.

within due bounds by the counterpoise of an immensely
strong Britain, will find abundant occupation in exploiting
the natural riches of her vast Asiatic Dominions. Peace,
prosperity, and the dawn of a brilliant era will come to
the New Far East.

THE END.

INDEX

A.

Aino," " The Hairy, 47

Akflgi, The Story of the, in the

Chino- Japanese War, 142-146
America, The United States of :

Attitude towards Japan, 15 ; as

a possible ally to Great Britain

in the East, 365
Americans in Korea, 83
Ancestors, Chinese Veneration for,

228-232

Anderson, Professor William, 239
Arnold, Sir Edwin, 103, 238, 296
Arnold, Lady, 238
Ariga, Mr., Legal Adviser to the

Japanese Army Headquarters

during the War, 111-112

B.

Bacon, Miss Alice Mabel, 240

Bandai San Volcano, The Eruption
of the, in 1888 ; Relief of the
Sufferers by the Red Cross
Society of Japan, 135-137

Banto, The, The Japanese " Go-
Between, " 283, 292

Barbers Debarred until recently from
Competing for the Chinese Civil
Service, 42

Berlioz, Monseigneur, His Tribute to
the Efficacy of the Red Cross
Society of Japan, 138

Bimetallism, 282

Birmingham Products for China, 8

Brandt, Herr von, 328

y

British Merchants in the East, 18, 19

280-296

"Brits," in Revenge for "Japs," 8
Buddhism in China, 65, 211-212, 219

C.

Campbell, The Reverend W.,

F.R.G.S., M.J.S., on the Work

of the Japanese in Formosa,

165-169

Chaill6 -Long "Bey," Colonel, and

the Emperor of Korea, 89-90
Chamberlain, Professor Basil Hall,

on the Japanese, 103, 239
China, Defeat of, by British and
French, in 1860, 184; by
Japanese in 1894, *-4
The Emperor of, 201, 232
,, The Empress-Dowager of, and
the " yellow- wine" for the
" Braves," 134-135, 275
,, As a field for Enterprise, 302
,, Military Power of, 186-189,

318-326
,, Merchants and Missionaries

in, 19

,, Official Rank in, 75-76
,, Naval Power of, 187-188
"China-fashion," 229
Chinese Board of Foreign Affairs

The Tsung-li Yamfrt, 17
,, "Boys" and Compradores or

" Buyers," 18

Bravery in the War of 1894,
Instances of, 321

37

INDEX,

Chinese Conduct in the War of 1894
some grotesque Incidents,
3i8
Costume, 77-80, 276-277

Feet, 276-278
,, " Flower Boats," 277
., Language, 191

Mandarin, The, 80-82, 206-
209

,, Mental and Moral Character-
istics, 184-234, 274-279
,, Pigtail, The, 41, 70-74
Personal Habits, 81-194
,, Physical Characteristics, 44
,, Railways, 205-206
,, Reverence for their Ancestry,

231

Telegraphic Code, 191
,, View of Missionaries, 223
,, Women, 275-279
Chirol, Mr. Valentine, 205
Chivalry, A fine Example of, 149-162
CAo/>-sticks, 61-62
Christianity in China, 212-228
Chrysantheme, Madame, 241-243, 246
CHUNG How, the Chinese Special
Envoy to Russia in 1879 ; his
Mission and its Sequel, 197-199
Coal-fields in the Far East, 310
Coaling Stations in the Far East,

309-311

Colquhoun, Mr. Archibald, 205
Coltman, Mr. Robert, Jr., M.D., 204
Compradores, The Chinese, 18
Concubinage in Japan, 270-273
Confucianism in China, 210-213, 22
Cornaby, Mr. W. Arthur, 204
Costume, see Chinese, Japanese,

Korean
Curzon of Kedleston, Lord, 85, 205

D.
Douglas, Professor R. K., 204, 228

E.

Earthquake, The Great, of 1891,
Relief of the Sufferers by the Red
Cross Society of Japan, 136, 137

Eastlake, F. Warrington, Ph.D., and
YAMADA Yoshi-aki, LL.B., their
book, " Heroic Japan," 116

Education, Female, in Japan,

255

Elgar, Mr. Francis, 301
Etonians, The, and Admiral It5,

163

F.

Fashion in Japan, 264-265

Feudal System in Japan, its Aboli-
tion in 1871, 41

Fielde, Miss Adele M., 204

Formosa and the "Long Firm"
Transaction, 125 ; Mission of the
Presbyterian Church of England,
165; Work of the Japanese in,
165-169 ; as a Field for Enter-
prise, 297, 301

France, n, 122-124, J 84. 3 2 & ; an d
Russia, 352 ; and Great Britain,
353. 358, 360

G.

Galsworthy, Captain, of the KowsJiing,
on Japanese Clemency to their
Prisoners of War, 126
Gei-sha, The, 236, 237, 246-247, 265-

266

German Emperor, The, 215 ; his Alle-
gorical Cartoon, 327-336
,, Influence in Japan from

1885 to 1887. 66-67
,, Staff Officers, advisers in

the Japanese Army, 6
Germany in the East, 6, 122-124, 355
GOH Daigoro, His paper, " The
Family Relations in Japan,"
240
Gordon, General, His Work in China,

321-322

Great Britain, 4, 5, 8, 9, 35, 184, 328 ;
Policy in the East, Past, Present,
and Future, 356-368
Griffis, Rev. W. E., 239
Gundry, Mr. R. S., 205

INDEX.

37 1

H.

Hairdressing. Different Modes of, in

Japan, China, and Korea, 49
Hai-yang, i
HAT A Ristaro, Dr., His book " On

The Women of Japan," 240
Hearn, Mr. Lafcadio, His book,

" Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan,"

103-104, 240
Heroism, Three notable Cases of, in

the Chino-Japanese War, 140-

r 47
Holcombe, Mr. Chester, 204

I.

Ideograms, Chinese, and Telegraphy,

I95-IQ7

Ito, Vice-Admiral, 2, 130; his chival-
rous Attitude towards his defeated
Adversary, Admiral Ting, 149-
162; a remarkable Letter, 149-

J-
Japan, Alien Citizens of, 21

,, As an Ally to Great Britain,

362-368
Attitude of the Powers towards,

before the War, 5-16
Commercial Condition of, 280-

302
Consular Service of ; adminis-

trative Duties in China after

the War, 120

The Emperor of, 113-115
,, The Empress of, 67 ; and the

Work of the Red Cross

Society, 133-135
" The " Great Change " in,

(1868), 58

> Medical Service of, 133-137
Military Power of, 316-317
., Naval Power of, 312-315
i The Red Cross Society of,

133-139
The Victory of, over China,

and its Results, 35
Japan Mail, The, 22

Japan Mail Steamship Company, The,

302
,, Society, The, 10, 14, 138, 240,

2 44. 254, 301
Japan Times, The, 22
Japanese Attitude towards Religion,

225, 228

Commercial Schools, 289
,, Costume, Male, 50-65 ; Fe-
male, 264-269
Eve, The, 253

,, Fans, etc., 53-69, 77-78
,, Government, The, and Port

Arthur, 113-115

Mental and Moral Character-
istics, 105, 174-183
"Parting" of the Hair a

distinguishing Mark, 40
,, Personal Habits, 53-54
,, Physical Characteristics, 45

Shipping, 301
,, Shi-zoku, The, 33, 39-41, 50-

60, 99

,, Social classes, 285
Syllabary, The, 195

Traders, 282-296
,, Women, 235-274
" Japs " A friendly Protest against
the use of the term, 7

K.

Kana, The, The Japanese Syllabary,

194-195

KAWAMCRA, Hoshu, M.D., Inspector
of Hospitals and Fleets, and
Principal Medical Officer of
Admiral Ito's squadron in the
War : The Story of his Heroism,
140-142

Kiao-chau, 355
Kisaing, The, The Gei-sha of Korea,

278

Knackfuss, Professor H., 327
Korea, 29 ; American Invaders of,

82-83

Bay, 1-4

The King of: How he was
prevailed upon to assume his

372

INDEX.

present title of Emperor, 97-98 ;
and Colonel Chaille-Long " Bey,"
89-90, 201

Korea, The Queen of, 275
Korean Costume and Personal Equip-
ment, 82-98, 277-279
Phonetic Alphabet, 196
"Topknot," The, 89-90
Yang-Ian, The, 43, 82-98
,, Women, 275-279
Kowshing, The Sinking of the, 126-

129
KCBOTA Beisen, 337

L.

Lang, Captain, R.N., 153

Liao-tung Peninsula, The Adminis-
tration of, by the Japanese Civil
Commissioners, after the War,
120-124

Li Hung Chang, 32, 201, 213-215

Livadia, The Treaty of, 197

Liu Yung-fu, The Black Flag leader
in Formosa, 167

11 Long Firm," The, The Three Part-
ners, Russia, France, and Ger-
many, Japan their Victim, 122-
125

Loti, Pierre, 238, 241-243

M.

MacKay, Rev. George Leslie, 223
Mage, The, The National mode of

Hair-dressing in Japan, gradually

abandoned since 1870, 69
Mahan, Captain, 307-308
Manchester goods for China, 8
"Mandarin," The Chinese, 42, 207-

210
Martell, Mr., Chief Surveyor to

Lloyd's Register, 301
Martin, Rev. Dr. W. A. P., 218
MATSUOKA Shuzo, Lieutenant, of the

Akagi, 145

Mitford, Mr. A. B., 239
Missionaries in the Far East, 19, 217-

228

MIYASHITA Sukejiro, First Class
Hospital Attendant : His heroism
in the Chino-Japanese War, 147

Monroe Doctrine, The, in 1894, 123

Morse, Professor, 209

Mother-in-law, The, in the Far-East.

255

Mutsu, Count, Japanese Foreign
Minister : His communications
concerning Port Arthur to
Japanese Representatives abroad,

N.
Nagoya, The Castle of, 136; its

travelled Dolphin, 136, 137
Naniwa, The, and the Sinking of the

Kowshing, 126-129
Nintoku, the Japanese Emperor, The

Legend of, 294-296
Norman, Mr. Henry, 238-239
North China Herald, The, 203
Novocastrian, An Expansive, 163

O.

" Open Door," The, 84
Osaka, 293-294, 316
Oyama, Field - Marshal Count, his
Act of Clemency, 130-131

P.

" Parting " of the Hair, The, a mark
distinguishing the modern Japan-
ese from the other Yellow Races :
a practical illustration, 40

Pearson, Dr. C. H., 328

Peking, 16-17

Peking Gazette, The, 134, 168, 203-204,

3i9
Perry, Commodore, His Expedition

of 1853-4, 15

Phyong-yang, see Ping-yang
Pickering, Mr. W. A., C.M.G., 205
Pigtail, The Chinese, 41, 70-75
Ping-yang, The Battle of, 12
Port Arthur, The Massacre at, 107-

"5

INDEX.

373

"Prison Editor," The, in Japan,

23
Prostitution in Japan, 267-270

R.

Railways in China, 205-208
Red Cross Society, The, of Japan,

133 ; its work in Peace and in

War, 133-139
Reid, Rev. Gilbert, 218
Revised Treaty, The new, between

Great Britain and Japan, 9
Roman Catholic Missionaries in

China, 221
Rogers, Admiral, of the United States

Navy, 83
Roze, Admiral, of the French Navy,

83

Russia, 3, 6, 13, 16, 103, 122-124, 197,
199, 324-326, 328, 340-352, 358-
360

S.
SAIGO Takamori's insurrection in

Satsuma, 297
Saint Francis Xavier on the Japanese,

103
Saint Kobo Daishi, framer of the

Kana Syllabary, the Japanese

ABC, 194-195
SAKAMOTO Hachiroda, Commander

of the Ahagi, 142-143
SAKAMOTO Toshiatsu, Lieutenant-
Commander of the Hiyei, 147
Salisbury, The Marquess of, 356
Satsuma, 297

Sheffield products for China, 8
Shin - to Religion, The, in Japan,

219, 254
Shi-zoku, The, formerly called the

Samurai the Japanese Gentry i

33. 39-4*. 5-6o. 99
Sho-jo, The, Red-haired Drunkards

a Japanese Myth, 49
Smith, The Rev. A. H., 204
Soul, 90, 277
" Squeeze-P/rf/'m," 206, 207

Ta-lien-wan," "The Legend of, 8

Tamplin. Mr. L. H., of the Kowshing,
on Japanese clemency to their pri-
soners of war, 126; the story of
the Tsao-Kiang, 127; his own
detention, 127, 128

Taylor, Surgeon-Major-General : His
tribute to the Japanese Medical
Service, 133

Telegraphy in the Far East, 197-203

Tidal Wave, The Great, of 1896,
137-139

Ting, Admiral, i, 2 ; Admiral Ito's
letter to, 149-151 ; his reply, 155;
subsequent communications, 156-
159 ; his suicide, 160 ; Funeral
Honours from the Japanese, 161,
162

Tog5, Rear-Admiral of the Naniwa,
The charge of inhumanity
against, in connection with the
sinking of the Kowshing, 128

Tokio. 16, 64, 66, 267, 270, 301

Topknot, The Korean, 41

Tseng, Marquis : His mission to St.
Petersburg, 199

Tseng Ch'i, His Excellency, Tartar
General and Military Governor
of Heilung-chiang, A charac-
teristic official Report, 319

Tso Tsung-Tang, General, an early
advocate of telegraphy in China,
198

Tsung-li Yamfri, The, 17, 213

Turanian Race, The, Differences
between the various branches of,
in face and form, 44

U.
Usui Hiroshi, Surgeon, of theAkagi :

His heroism in the Chino-

JapaneseWar, 142-146
"Vladimir": His book on "The

China-Japan War," 112

W.

Wade. Sir Thomas, 218
Walters, T., 204

374

INDEX.

Wei-hai-wei, I, 2, 129, 130, 160,

1 68
Weyde, Major Van der : His verdict

on the photographs of Port

Arthur incidents. 108-109
Williamson, Rev. Dr. A., 218
Wolseley, Lord, on the military

qualities of the Chinese, 9

Y.

Yalu Sea-Fight, The, 1-3, 12, 318
YAM ADA Yoshi-aki, LL.B., and F.
Warrington Eastlake, Ph.D. :
Their book, " Heroic Japan,"
116

Yamaji, Lieutenant-General, and the
Port Arthur massacre, 114

Yamato Damashi-7, " The Spirit of
Old Japan," 33, 259

Yamato-take, Prince, the legendary
Japanese warrior, and his " fire-
strike-bag," 63, 64

" Yang-ban," The, Korean ruling class,
43, 82-96

" Yellow Peril," The imaginary
327-336 ; The real, 337-339

Y. Kawara, Captain, of the Yos-
hino, 36

Yoshino. H.I.J.M.S., at Plymouth,
36-40

Yoshi-wara, The, at Tokio, 267-270

PRINTED BY CASSELL & COMPANY. LIMITRD LA BELLE SAUVAGK, LONDON, E.G.

80.504

A Selection

from

Cassell & Company's
Publications.

yG-8.03.

2 A Selection from Cassell & Company's Publications.

Illustrated, Fine Art, and other Volumes.

Aconcagua and Tierra del Fuego.

A Book ot Climbing, Travel, and
Exploration. By Sir MARTIN
CONWAY. With numerous Illustra-
tions from Photographs, i2s.6d.net.

A Daughter of the Pit. By MAR-
GARET DOYLE JACKSON. 6s.

Admirable Lady Biddy Fane, The.
By FRANK BARRETT. 35. 6d.

Adventure, The World of. With
Stirring Pictures and 18 Coloured
Plates. In Three Vols. 55. each.

Adventures of Harry Revel, The.
By A. T. QuiLLER-CoucH. 6s.

Afield and Afloat By FRANK
STOCKTON. 6s.

Aladdin O'Brien. By GOUVERNEUR
MORRIS. 6s.

Alice of Old Vincennes. By
MAURICE THOMPSON. 6s.

America at Work. ByJOHN FOSTER
FRASER. Illustrated. 6s.

An Eton Boy's Letters. By NUGENT
BANKES. 55.

Animals, Popular History of. By
HENRY SCHERREN, F.Z.S. With
13 Coloured Plates, &c. 6s.

Army Business, The, and its London
Office. By a Colonel in Business, is.

Art, Sacred. With nearly 200 Full-
page Illustrations, gs.

Art, The Magazine of. With a Series
of Full-page Plates, and hundreds
of Illustrations. Yearly Vol. , 2is.

Artistic Anatomy. By Prof. M.
DUVAL. Cheap Edition. 35. 6d.

Australasia: the Britain s of the
South. By PHILIP GIBBS. With
4 Coloured Plates and numerous
Illustrations, as. 6d.

Automobile, The : Its Construction
and Management. Edited by
PAUL N. HASLUCK. New Edi-
tion. Illustrated. IDS. 6d. net.

Avenger of Blood, The. By J.
MACLAREN COBBAN. 33. 6d.

Ballads and Songs. By W. M.
THACKERAY. Illustrated. 6s.

Ballads and Songs of Spain. By
LEONARD WILLIAMS. 43. net.

Barber, Charles Burton, The Works
of. With 41 Plates and Introduc-
tion by HARRY FURNISS. 73. 6d.

Berry, Rev. C. A., D.D., Life of. By
the Rev. J. S. DRUMMOND. 6s.

Birds' Nests, British : How, Where,
and When to Find and Identify
Them. 3y R. KEARTON, F.Z.S.
Illustrated from Photographs direct
from Nature by C. KEARTON. 215.

Birds' Nests, Eggs, and Egg-Collect-
ing. By R. KEARTON, F.Z.S.
With 22 Coloured Plates. 55.

Birds, Our Rarer British Breeding :
Their Nests, Eggs, and Breeding
Haunts. By R. KEARTON, F.Z.S.
Illustrated from Photographs direct
from Nature by C. KEARTON.
75. 6d.

Black Arrow, The. By R. L.
STEVENSON. 6s. Popular Edition,
35. 6d.

Black Watch, The. The Record of
an Historic Regiment. By ARCHI-
BALD FORBES, LL.D. With 8 Illus-
trations. Popular Edition. 33. 6d.

Black, William, Novelist. By Sir
WEMYSS REID. With 3 Portraits,
ros. 6d. net.

Boer War, Cassell's Illustrated
History of the. 73. 6d.

Britain at Work. A Pictorial De-
scription of our National Industries.
By popular authors, and contain-
ing nearly 500 Illustrations. 123.

Britain's Sea-Kings and Sea-Fights.
Profusely Illustrated. 75. 6d.

British Ballads. With 300 Original
Illustrations. Cheap Edition. Two
Vols. in One. Cloth, 75. 6d.

British Battles on Land and Sea.
By JAMES GRANT. With about
800 Illustrations. Cheap Edition.
In Four Vols., 33. 6d. each.

British Nigeria. By Lieut. -Col.
MOCKLER-FERRYMAN. With Map
and 27 Illustrations. 125. 6d. net.

British Sculpture and Sculptors of
To-day. By M. H. SPIELMANN.
Illustrated. 53. net; cloth, 73. 6d. net.

Building World. Half- Yearly Vols. ,
.is. 6d. each.

Bulb Growing, Pictorial Practical.
By WALTER P. WRIGHT. With
numerous Illustrations. Paper
Covers, is. ; cloth, is. 6d.

Butterflies and Moths of Europe,
The. By W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S.,
F.E.S. With 54 Coloured Plates and
numerous Illustrations. 213. net.

A Selection from Cassell & Company 's Publications. 3

Cairo and the Khedive. Illustrated.
6d. net.

Campaign Pictures of the War in
South Africa (1899-1900). Letters
from the Front. By A. G. HALES.
6s.

Canaries and Cage-Birds, The Illus-
trated Book of. With 56 Coloured
Plates, 353. ; half-morocco, 2 53.

Captain's Toll-gate, The. By
FRANK STOCKTON. With Full-
page Illustrations. 6s.

Cassell's Magazine. Half - Yearly
Volume, 55. ; Yearly Volume, 8s.

Cassell's Popular Science. Edited
by ALEXANDER S. GALT. Vol. i
with 12 Coloured Plates and
numerous Illustrations. 123.

Cat, The Book of The. By FRANCES
SIMPSON. With 12 Full-page
Plates in Colour and numerous
Illustrations. 153. net.

Cathedrals, Abbeys, and Churches
of England and Wales. Descrip-
tive, Historical, Pictorial. Popular-
Edition. Two Vols., 153. the set.

Catriona. By R. L. STEVENSON.
6s. Popular Edition. 33. 6d.

Chinese Crisis, The Story of the.
By ALEXIS KRAUSSE. 33. 6d.

Chinese Pictures. Notes on Photo-
graphs made in China. By Mrs.
BISHOP, F.R.G.S. (ISABELLA BIRD).
With 60 Illustrations. 33. 6d.

Chinese Porcelain. By COSMO MONK-
HOUSE. Illustrated. 635. net. This
Edition is limited to 1,000 copies.

Chums. The Illustrated Paper for
Boys. Yearly Volume, 8s.

Clinical Manuals for Practitioners
and Students of Medicine. A List
of Volumes forwarded post free on
application to the Publishers.

Cloistering of Ursula, The. By
CLINTON SCOLLARD. 6s.

Clyde, Cassell's Pictorial Guide to
the. With Coloured Plate and 3
Maps. Cloth, is.

Colour. By Prof. A. H. CHURCH.
With Coloured Pktes. 35. 6d.

Conning Tower, In a; or, How I took
H.M.S. "Majestic" into Action.
By H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER, M.A.
Illustrated. 6d. ; cloth, is.

Cookery, a Year's. By PHYLLIS
BROWNE. Cheap Edition, is.

Cookery Book, Cassell's Universal
By LIZZIE HERITAGE. New Edi-
tion. With 12 Coloured Plates. 6s.

Cookery, Cassell's Dictionary of.
With about 9,000 Recipes. 53.

Cookery, Cassell's Shilling, is.

Cookery for Common Ailments, is.

Cookery, Vegetarian. By A. G.
PAYNE. Cheap Edition, is.

Cooking by Gas, The Art of. By
MARIE J. SUGG. Illustrated. 25.

Coronation Book of Edward VII.,
King of All the Britains and
Emperor of India, The. By W. J.
LOFTIE, B.A., F.S.A. With 24
Coloured Plates and numerous
Illustrations. Sumptuously Illumin-
ated in Gold and Colours. IDS. 6d.

Cupid's Garden. By ELLEN THOK-
NEYCROFT FOWLER. 35. 6d. Peo-
ple's Edition, 6d.

Cyclopaedia, Cassell's Concise. With
about 600 Illustrations. 55.

Cyclopaedia, Cassell's Miniature.
Containing 30,000 subjects. Cheap
and Revised Edition. Limp cloth,
is.; cloth grit, is. 6d.

" Death or Glory Boys," The. The
Story of the I7th Lancers. By
D. H. PARRY. With 8 Illustrations.
Cheap Edition. 33. 6d.

Dictator's Daughter, The. By
EDGAR I EPSON. 6s.

Dictionary of Practical Gardening,
Cassell's. Edited by WALTER P.
WRIGHT. With 20 Coloured Plates
and several hundreds of Illustrations
from Photographs taken direct from
Nature. Two Vols., half-leather,
gilt top, 303. net.

Dog, Illustrated Book of the. By
VERO SHAW, B.A. With 28 Col-
oured Plates. Cloth bevelled, 353. ;
half-morocco, 455.

Doings of Raffles Haw, The. By
A. CONAN DOYLE. 35. 6d.

Dominion of the Air, The : The
Story of Aerial Navigation. By
the Rev. J. M. BACON. With
numerous Illustrations from Photo-
graphs. 6s.

Dor6 Bible, The. With 200 Full-
page Illustrations by DOR. 153.

Dor6 Don Quixote, The. With
about 400 Illustrations by Gus-
TAVE DORE. Cheap Edition.

Cloth, IDS. 6d.

4 A Selection from Cassett 6 Company's Publications.

Dor6 Gallery, The. With 250 Illus-
trations by GUSTAVE DOR 6. 423.

Dora's Dante's Inferno. Illustrated
by GUSTAVE DORE. Large 410
Edition, cloth gilt, 213.

Dora's Dante's Purgatory and Para-
dise. Illustrated by GUSTAVE DORE.
Cheap Edition. 75. 6d.

Dore's Milton's Paradise Lost. Illus-
trated by DORE. 410, 2is. Popular
Edition. Cloth or buckram, 75. 6d.
Cheap Edition. I n One Vol. , i as. 6d.

Duke Decides, The. By HEADON
HILL. Illustrated. 6s.

Earth's Beginning, The. By SIR
ROBERT BALL, LL.D. Illustrated.
75. 6d.

Earth, our, and its Story. By Dr.
ROBERT BROWN, F.L.S. With
Coloured Plates and numerous En-
gravings. Cheap Edition. Three
Vols., 55. each.

Egypt : Descriptive, Historical, and
Picturesque. By Prof. G. EBERS.
With 800 Original Engravings.
Popular Edition. In Two Vols. 425.

Electricity, Practical By Prof. W.
E. AYRTON, F.R.S. New and
Enlarged Edition, 75. 6d.

Empire, The. Containing nearly 700
Splendid full-page Illustrations.
Complete in Two Vols. 95. each.

Encyclopaedic Dictionary, The. In
7 Vols., half-morocco, 7 73. per
set. Supplementary Volume, cloth,
73. 6d.

England and Wales, Pictorial With
upwards of 320 Illustrations from
Photographs. 93.

England, A History of. From the
Landing of Julius Caesar to the
Present Day. By H. O. ARNOLD-
FORSTER, M.A. Fully Illustrated.
55. Cloth gilt, gilt edges, 6s. 6d.

English Dictionary, CasselTs. Giving
Definitions of more than 100,000
Words and Phrases. 35. 6d.

English History, The Dictionary of.
Edited by SIDNEY Low, B.A., and
Prof. F. S. PULLING, M.A. 75. 6d.

English Literature, Morley's First
Sketch of. ,75. 6d.

English Literature, The Story of.
By ANNA BUCKLAND. 35. 6d.

English Porcelain. By W. BURTON.
With 83 Plates, including 35 in
Colour. 633. net.

English Writers. By Prof. HENKY
MORLEY. Vols. I. to XI., 53. each.

Familiar Butterflies and Moths.
By W. F. KIRBY, F.L.S. With
18 Coloured Ptetes, 6s.

Familiar Wild Birds. By W. SWAYS-
LAND. With*Coloure'd Pictures by
A. THORBURN and others. Cheap
Edition, Four Vols., 3*. 6d. each.

Family Doctor, Cassell's. By A
MEDICAL MAN. Illustrated.' 6s.

Family Lawyer, Cassell's. By A
BARRISTER-AT-LAW. IDS. 6d.

Father Stafford. By ANTHONV
HOPE. 35. 6d.

Field Hospital, The Tale of a. By
Sir FREDERICK TREVES, Bart.,
K.C.V.O., C.B., F.R.C.S. With
14 Illustrations. 53. Leather, 6s.

Field Naturalist's Handbook, The.
By the Revs. J. G. WOOD and
THEODORE WOOD. 23. 6d.

Flame of Fire, A. By JOSEPH
HOCKING. 35. 6d.

Franco-German War, Cassell's His-
tory of the. Complete in Two
Vols. Containing- about 500 Illus-
trations. Chea-p Edition. 6s. each.

French Faience. By M. L. SOLON.
Edited by W. BURTON. With 24
Plates in Colours and numerous.
Black and White Plates. 305. net.
Limited to 1,200 copies.

Fruit Growing, Pictorial Practical
By W. P. WRIGHT. Illustrated.
Paper covers, is. ; cloth, is. 6d.

Garden Flowers, Familiar. By F.
EDWARD HULME, F.L.S., F.S.A.
With 200 Full-page Coloured Plates.
Cheap Edition. In Five Vols.,.
33. 6d. each.

Garden of Swords, The. By MAX
PEMBERTON. 6s.

Gardener, The. Yearly Volume. Pro-
fusely Illustrated. 73. 6d.

Gardening, Pictorial Practical By
W. P. WRIGHT. With upwards
of 140 Illustrations. Paper covers,
is. ; cloth, is. 6d.

Gazetteer of Great Britain and Ire-
land, Cassell's. With numerous
Illustrations and 60 Maps. Six
Vols., 55. each.

Giant's Gate, The. By MAX PEM-
BERTON. 6s.

Girl at Cobhurst, The. By FRANK
STOCKTON. 33. 6cL

A Selection from Cassell &* Company's Publications. 5

Gladstone, William Ewart, The Life
of. Edited by Sir WEMYSS REID.
Illustrated. 73. 6d. Superior
Edition, in Two Vols. gs.

Gladys Fane. ,A Story of Two Lives.
By Sir WEMYSS REID. 33. 6d.

Gleanings from Popular Authors.
illustrated. Clieap Edition. 33. 6d.

Greenhouse Management, Pic-
torial. By WALTER P. WRIGHT,
Editor qf "The Gardener," &c.
With nearly 100 Illustrations. Paper
covers, is. ; cloth, is. 6d.

Gulliver's Travels. With upwards
of 100 Illustrations. New Fine
Art Edition. 73. 6d.

Gun and its Development, The.
By W. W. GREENER. With 1500
Illustrations. Entirely New Edi-
tion. IDS. 6d.

Gun-Room Ditty Box, A. By G.
STEWART BOWLES. With a Pre-
face by Rear - Admiral Lord
CHARLES BERESFORD. as.

Handyman's Book, The, of Tools,
Materials, and Processes em-
ployed in Woodworking. Edited
by PAUL N. HASLUCK. With
about 2,500 Illustrations, gs.

Heavens, The Story of the. By Sir
ROBERT BALL, LL.D. With
Coloured Plates. Popular Edition.
los. 6d.

Her Majesty's Tower. By HEP-
WORTH DIXON. With an Intro-
duction by W. J. LOFTIE, B.A.,
F.S.A. , and containing 16 Coloured
Plates specially prepared for this
Edition by H. E. TIDMARSH.
Popular Edition. Two Vols., ias.
the set.

Heroes of Britain in Peace and
War. With 300 Original Illustra-
tions. Cheap Edition. Complete
in One Vol. 33. 6d.

Holbein's "Ambassadors" Unrid-
dled. The Counts Palatine Otto
Henry and Philipp. A Key to
other Holbeins. By WILLIAM
FREDERICK DICKES. Illustrated,
los. 6d. net.

Houghton, Lord : The Life, Letters,
and Friendships of Richard
Monckton Milnes, First Lord
Houghton. By Sir WEMYSS REID.
InTwoVols. ,withT\vo Portraits. 323.

Hygiene and Public Health. By B.
ARTHUR WHITELEGGE, M .D. 75. 6d.

la : A Love Story. By A. T.

QUILLER-COUCH (Q). 33. 6d.

Impregnable City, The. By MAX

PEMBERTON. 35. 6d.
India, Cassell's History of. In One

Vol. Cheap Edition. Illustrated.

73. 6d.
India: Our Eastern Empire. By

PHILIP GIBBS. With 4 Coloured

Plates and numerous Illustrations.

23. 6d.

In Royal Purple. By WILLIAM
PIGOTT. 6s.

Iron Pirate, The. By MAX PEMBER-
TON. 35. 6d. People's Edition, 6d.

John Gayther's Garden. By FRANK
STOCKTON. 6s.

Kate Bonnet : The Romance of a
Pirate's Daughter. By FRANK
R. STOCKTON. With 8 Illustra-
tions. 6s.

Kidnapped. By R. L. STEVENSON.
33. 6d. People's Edition, 6d.

Kilogram, The Coming of the ; or,
The Battle of the Standards. By

H. O. ARNOLD-FORSTER, M.A.

Illustrated. Cheap Edition. 6d.

King Solomon's Mines. By H.
RIDER HAGGARD. Illustrated.
35. 6d. People's Edition, 6d.

Kronstadt. By MAX PEMBERTON. 6s.

Ladies' Physician, The. By A
LONDON PHYSICIAN. 33. 6d.

Laird's Luck, The, and other Fireside
Tales. By A. T. QUILLER-COUCH
(Q). 6s.

Land of the Dons, The. By
LEONARD WILLIAMS, late Times
Correspondent at Madrid, Author of

" Ballads and Songs of Spain," &c.
With about 42 Illustrations. I5s.net.

Landels, William, D.D. A Memoir.
By his Son, the Rev. THOMAS D.
LANDELS, M.A. With Portrait. 6s.

Landscape Painting in Water-
Colour. By J. MACWHIRTER,
R.A. With 23 Coloured Plates. 53.

Lepidus the Centurion : A Roman
of To-day. By EDWIN LESTER
ARNOLD. 6s.

Letts's Diaries and other Time-
saving Publications published
exclusively by CASSELL & COM-
PANY.. (A list free on application.)

List, Ye Landsmen! By W. CLARK
RUSSELL. 33. 6d.

Little Huguenot, The. By MAX
PEMBERTON. New Edition, is. 6d.

6 A Selection from Cassell 6 Company's Publications.

Little Minister, The. By J. M.
BARRIE. Illustrated. Cheap Edi-
tion. 33. 6d.

Little Novice, The. By ALIX KING.
6s.

Little Squire, The. By Mrs. HENRY
DE LA PASTURE. 35. 6d.

Living London. Edited by GEORGE R.
SIMS. Complete in 3 Volumes, each
containing over 450 Illustrations
from Photographs expressly taken,
and from Drawings by the best
Artists. las. ; half - leather, i6s.
each.

Li Hung-chang. By Mrs. ARCHI-
BALD LITTLE. With Rembrandt
Frontispiece and 3 Full-page Plates.
153. net. '

London, Cassell's Guide to. Illus-
trated. New Edition, 6d. ; cloth, is.

London, Greater. Two Vols. With
about 400 Illustrations. Cheap
Edition. 45. 6d. each.

London, Old and New. Six Vols.
With about 1,200 Illustrations and
Maps. Cheap Edition. 43. 6d. each.

London, Rambles In and Near. By
W. J.LOFTIE, F.S.A. Illustrated.
6s.

Lord Protector, The. By S.
LEVETT-YEATS. 6s.

Loveday. By A. E.WICKHAM. 35. 6d.

Man's Mirror, A. By EMILY PEAR-
SON FlNNEMORE. 6S.

Man in Black, The. By STANLEY

WEYMAN. 33. 6d.
Marie-Eve. By MARIAN BOWER.

6s.
Marine Painting in Water-Colour.

By W. L. WYLLIE, A.R.A. With

24 Coloured Plates. 53.
Masque of Days, A. With 40 pages

of Designs in Colour by WALTER

CRANE. 6s.
Master of Ballantrae. By R. L.

STEVENSON. 6s. Popular Edition,

33. 6d.
Mechanics, Cassell's Cyclopaedia of.

Edited by PAUL N. HASLUCK.

Profusely Illustrated. Series i, 2,

and 3, each complete in itself.

73. 6d. each. **
Medicine, Manuals for Students of.

(A list forwarded post free. )
Military Forces of the Crown,

Their Organisation and Equip-
ment. By Colonel W. H. DANIEL.

Illustrated. 53.

Music, Illustrated History of. By
EMIL NAUMANN. Edited by the
Rev. Sir F. A. GORE OUSELEY,
Bart. Illustrated. Cheap Edition.
Two Vols. 1 8s.

Nat Harlowe, Mountebank. By
GEORGE R. SIMS. With 16 Illus-
trations. 33. 6d.

National Gallery, The. Edited by
Sir E. J. POYNTER, P.R.A. Illus-
trating every Picture in the National
Gallery. In Three Vols. Published
at 7 73., now increased to^i6 i6s.
the set, net.

National Gallery Catalogue. Pro-
fusely Illustrated. 6d. net.

National Gallery of British Art (The
Tate Gallery), The Catalogue
Of the. Containing numerous Illus-
trations, and a List of all the Pictures
exhibited. 6d. net.

National Library, Cassell's. 3d.
and 6d. List post free on appli-
cation.

National Portrait Gallery. Edited
by LIONEL CUST, M.A., F.S.A.
Illustrating every Picture in the
National Portrait Gallery. Two
Vols. 6 6s. net.

Nation's Pictures, The. Complete in
4 Vols. Each containing 48 Beau-
tiful Coloured Reproductions of
some of the finest Modern Paintings
in the Public Picture Galleries of
Great Britain, with descriptive Text.
Cloth, 123. ; half-leather, 153. each.

Natural History, Cassell's. Cheap
Edition. With about 2,000 Illus-
trations. In Three Double Vols.
6s. each.

Natural History, Cassell's Concise.
By E. PERCEVAL WRIGHT, M.A.,
M.D., F.L.S. With several Hun-
dred Illustrations. 75. 6d.

Nature's Riddles. By H. W.
SHEPHEARD WALWYN, M.A., &c.
With numerous Illustrations. 6s.

Nature and a Camera, With, By
RICHARD KEARTON, F.Z.S. With
Frontispiece, and 180 Pictures from
Photographs direct from Nature by
C. KEARTON. Cheap Edition.
7 s. 6d.

Nebo the Nailer. By S. BARING-
GOULD. 6s.

Old Fires and Profitable Ghosts.
By A. T. QUILLER-COUCH (Q). 6s.

A Selection from Cassell & Company's Publications. 7

" Ophir," with the : Bound the
Empire. With 24 Illustrations. By
WM. MAXWELL. 6s.
Our Bird Friends. By R. KEARTON,
F.Z.S. With ico Illustrations from
Photographs direct from Nature by
C. KEARTON. 55.

Our Own Country. With 1,200
Illustrations. Cheap Edition. Three
Double Vols. 55. each.
Oxford, Reminiscences of. By the
Rev. W. TUCKWELL, M.A. With
16 Full-page Illustrations. 95.
Painting, Practical Guides to. With

Coloured Plates :
ITALIAN PAINTING, 55.
CHINA PAINTING. 55.
NEUTRAL TINT. 55.

FLOWERS, AND How TO PAINT THEM. 55.
MANUAL OF OIL PAINTING. 25. 6d.

MACWHIRTER'S LANDSCAPE PAINTING IN
WATER-COLOUR. $s.

WYLLIE'S MARINE PAINTING IN WATER
COLOUR. 55.

Paris, Cassell's Illustrated Guide to.

Paper, 6d.; cloth, is.
Passing of the Dragon, The. By

F. JAY CEAGH. is.

Peel, Sir R. By Lord ROSEBERY.
2s. 6d.

Penny Magazine, The. With about
650 Illustrations. In Quarterly
Volumes. 2s. 6d. each.

Peoples of the World, The. By Dr.
ROBERT BROWN. In Six Vols.
Illustrated. 35. 6d. each.

Peril and Patriotism. True Tales
of Heroic Deeds and Startling
Adventures. Two Vols. in One. 53.

Personal Recollections. By H.
SUTHERLAND EDWARDS, ys. 6d.

Pictorial Scotland and Ireland.
With 320 Copyright Illustrations
from Photographs. 93.

Pictures of Many Wars. By FRED-
ERIC VILLIERS. A Thrilling
Narrative of Experiences by a
world-famous War Correspondent.
Illustrated. 6s.

Picturesque America. In Four Vols. ,
with 48 Steel Plates and 800 Wood
Engravings. .12 123. the set.
Popular Edition. 183. each.

Picturesque Canada. With 600
Original Illustrations. Two Vols.
9 93. the set.

Picturesque Europe. Popular Edi-
tion. The Continent. In Three
Vols. Each containing 13 Litho
Plates and nearly 200 Illustrations.
6s. each.

Picturesque Mediterranean, The.

With Magnificent Illustrations by
leading Artists. Complete in Two
Vols. 2 ss. each.

Pigeons, Fulton's Book of. Edited
by LEWIS WRIGHT. Revised and
Supplemented by the Rev. W. F.
LUMLEY. With 50 Full-page Illus-
trations. Popular Edition. los. 6d.
Original Edition, with 50 Coloured
Plates and numerous Wood En-
gravings. 2 is.

Planet, The Story of Our. By Prof.
BONNEY, F. R.S. With Coloured
Plates and Maps and about 100
Illustrations. Cheap Edition, ys. 6d.

Playfair, Lyon, First Lord Playfair
of St. Andrews, Memoirs and Cor-
respondence of. By Sir WEMYSS
REID. With Two Portraits. Cheap
Edition. 75. 6d.

Playthings and Parodies. By BARRY
PAIN. 35. 6d.

Plowshare and the Sword, The.
By ERNEST GEORGE HENHAM.
6s.

Pocsherds. By Mrs. HENRY BIRCH-
ENOUGH. 6s.

Poultry Club Standards, The. With
an Introduction by LEWIS WRIGHT.
Edited by T. THRELFORD. is. net.

Poultry, The Book of. By LEWIS
WRIGHT. Papula*- Edition. los. 6d.

Poultry, The New Book of. i y
LEWIS W RIGHT. With 30 new
Coloured Plates, expressly pre-
pared by J. W. Ludlow, and other
Illustrations. 213.

Poultry Keeper, The Practical By
LEWIS WRIGHT. With Eight
Coloured Plates and numerous
Illustrations. 33. 6d.

Princess Cynthia, The. By MAR-
GUERITE BRYANT. 6s.

Profitable Home Farming, specially
adapted to Occupants of Small
Homesteads. By 'Yeoman.' is.;
cloth, is. 6d.

Q's Works. 53. each.
t*DEAD MAN'S ROCK.
{THE SPLENDID SPUR.
fTHE ASTONISHING HISTORY OF TROY

TOWN.
"I SAW THREE SHIPS," and other Winter's

Tales.

NOUGHTS AND CROSSES.
THE DELECTABLE DUCHY.
WANDHRING HEATH.

* Also at 35. 6d. T Also People's Editions at 64,

8 A Selection from Cassell & Company's Publications.

Queen's London, The. Containing
about 450 Exquisite Views of Lon-
don and its Environs, 93.
Queen Victoria. A Personal Sketch.
By Mrs. OLIPHANT. With Three
Rembrandt Plates and other Illus-
trations. 33. 6d. Also 53., half-
morocco.

Rabbit-Keeper, The Practical. By
" CUNICULUS, " assisted by Eminent
Fanciers. With Illustrations. 35. 6d.
Railway Guides, Official. With Illus-
trations, Maps, &c. Price is. each ;
or in Cloth, is. 6d. each.
LONDON AND NORTH WESTERN RAILWAY.
GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY.
MIDLAND RAILWAY.
GREAT NORTHERN RAILWAY.
GREAT EASTERN RAILWAY.
LONDON AND SOUTH WESTERN RAILWAY.
LONDON, BRIGHTON AND SOUTH COAST

RAILWAY.
SOUTH EASTERN AND CHATHAM RAILWAY.

Refiner's Fire, The. By Mrs. E.

HOCKLIFFE. 35. 6d.

Rivers of Great Britain: Descriptive,

Historical, Pictorial.
RIVERS OF THE SOUTH AND WEST COASTS.

Popular Edition, i6s.
RIVERS OF THE EAST COAST. Poft<lir

Edition, i6s

Rogue's March, The. By E. W.

HORNUNG. 35. 6d.

Royal Academy Pictures. Annual
Volume. 73. 6d.

Ruskin, John : A Sketch of His Life,
His Work, and His Opinions, with
Personal Reminiscences. By M.
H. SPIELMANN. 55.

Saturday Journal, Cassell's. Yearly
Volume, cloth, 73. 6d.

Scales of Heaven, The. Narrative,
Legendary and Meditative. With
a few Sonnets. By the Rev. FRED-
ERICK LANGBRIDGE. 53.

Science Series, The Century. Con-
sisting of Biographies of Eminent
Scientific Men of the present Cen-
tury. Edited by Sir HENRY ROSCOE,
D.C.L., F.R.S. Crown 8vo. New
Edition. 10 Vols. as. 6d. each.

Science for AIL Edited by Dr.
ROBERT BROWN. Cheap Edition.
In Five Vols. 35. 6d. each.

Scientific Truth, The Criterion of.
By GEORGE SHANN. is. 6d.

Sea, The Story of the. Edited by Q.
Illustrated. In Two Vols. 93. each.
Cheap Edition. 53. each.

Sea Wolves, The. By MAX PEM-
BERTON. 35. 6d. People's Edi-
tion, 6d.

Sentimental Tommy. By J. M.
BARRIE. Illustrated. 6s.

Shaftesbury, The Seventh Earl of,
KG., The Life and Work of. By
EDWIN HODDER. Cheap Edition.
35. 6d.

Shakespeare.The Plays of. Edited by
Professor HENRY MORLEY. Com-
plete in Thirteen Vols. , cloth, zis. ;
also 39 Vols., cloth, in box, 2is.

Shakespeare, The England of. New
Edition. By E. GOADBY. With
Full-page Illustrations, as. 6d.

Shakspere, The Leopold. With 400
Illustrations. Cheap Edition. 33. 6d.
Cloth gilt, gilt edges, 55. ; half-
persian, 55. 6d. net.

Shakspere, The Royal. With 50
Full-page Illustrations. Complete
in Three Vols. 153. the set.

Shaw, Alfred, Cricketer: His Career
and Reminiscences. Recorded by
A. W. PULLIN. With a Statist-
ical Chapter by ALFRED J. GASTON.
Cheap Edition, paper covers, is.

Ship of Stars, The. By A. T.

QUILLER-COUCH (Q). 6s.

Siberia, The Real. By J. FOSTER
ERASER. With numerous Illus-
trations from Photographs. 6s.

Sights and Scenes in Oxford City and
University. With 100 Illustrations
after Original Photographs. 213.

Social England. A Record of the
Progress of the People. By various
Writers. Edited by H. D. TRAILL,
D.C.L., and J. S. MANN, M.A.
New Illustrated Edition, to be
completed in Six Vols. Vols. I. to
IV., 145. net each.

Soldier of the King, A. By DORA
M. JONES. 6s.

Some Persons Unknown. By E. W.
HORNUNG. 35. 6d.

Songs of Near and Far Away. By

E. RICHARDSON. With numerous
Coloured and other Illustrations. 6s.

Sports and Pastimes, Cassell's
Book of. With numerous Illus-
trations. New Edition. 33. 6d.

Sports of the World. Edited by

F. G. AFLALO, F.R.G.S., F.Z.S.
With several hundreds of New and
Original Illustrations. 125.

Standard Library, Cassell's. Pop-
ular Works by Great Authors of the
Past. is. net each. (List free on
application.)

A Selection from Cassell & Company 's Publications. Q

Star-Land. By Sir ROBERT BALL,
LL.D. Illustrated. New and En-
larged Edition. 75. 6d.

Sun, The Story of the. By Sir
ROBERT BALL, LL.D. With Eight
Coloured Plates and other Illus-
trations. Cheap Edition. IDS. 6d.

Technical Instruction. A Series of
Practical Volumes. Edited by P.
N. HASLUCK. Illustrated, as. each.

PRACT
PRACT
PRACT
PRACT

CAL METAL PLATE WORK.
CAL GAS FITTING.
CAL DRAUGHTSMEN'S WORK.
CAL GRAINING AND MARBLING.

Tenant of the Grange, The. By
MORICE GERARD. 6s.

"The Shop": The Story of the
Royal Military Academy. By
Captain GUGGISBERG, R.E. With
8 Coloured Plates. 125. 6d. net.

Tidal Thames, The. By GRANT
ALLEN. With India Proof Im-
pressions of 20 magnificent Full-
page Photogravure Plates, and with
many other Illustrations in the Text
after Original Drawings by W. L.
WYLLIE, A.R.A. 425. net.

Toledo and Madrid : Their Records
and Romances. By LEONARD
WILLIAMS. With 55 Illustrations.
I2S. 6d. net

Tommy and GrizeL By J. M. BARRIE.
6s.

TreasureIsland.ByR.L.STEVENSON.
Cheap Illustrated Edition. 35. 6d.

"Unicode": The Universal Tele-
graphic Phrase Book. Desk or
Pocket Edition. 2s. 6d.

Universal History, Cassell' s Illus-
trated. Four Volumes. <;s. each.

Vicat Cole, R.A., The Life and
Paintings of. Illustrated. In Three
Volumes. ^3 33.

Wallace Collection in Hertford
House, The. By M. H. SPIEL-
MANN. Illustrated, is.

Wars of the 'Nineties, The. A His-
tory of the Warfare of the last Ten
Years of the igth Century. Profusely
Illustrated. In One Vol. 75. 6d.

Westminster Abbey, Annals of. By
E. T. BRADLEY (Mrs. A. MURRAY
SMITH). Illustrated. Cheap Edition.

2IS.

White's Natural History of Sel-
borne. With Notes by R. KEAR-
TON, F.Z.S. Containing over 120
Illustrations from Photographs. 6s.

Whist,Encyclopsedia of the Game of.
By Sir WILLIAM CUSACK-SMITH,
Bart. is.

Wild Flowers, Familiar. By F.
EDWARD HULME, F.L.S., F.S. A.
With 240 beautiful Coloured Plates.
Cheap Edition. In Seven Volumes.
33. 6d. each.

Wild Nature's Ways. By R. K EAR-
TON. With numerous Illustrations
from Photographs by the Author,
i os. 6d.

Wild Life at Home : How to Study
and Photograph It. By RICHARD
KEARTON, F.Z.S. Illustrated from
Photographs by C. KEARTON. 6s.

Wit and Humour, Cassell's New
World of. Two Vols. 6s. each.

Work. The Illustrated Weekly
Journal for Mechanics. Halt-
Yearly Vols. 43. 6d. each.

"Work" Handbooks. Edited by
PAUL N. HASLUCK, Editor of
Work. Illustrated, is. each.

World of Wonders. Illustrated. Cheap
Edition. Two Vols. 45. 6d. each.

Wrecker, The. By R. L. STEVENSON.
6s. Popular Edition, 33. 6d.

Illustrated Magazines and Practical Journals.

THE QUIVER. Monthly, 6d.
CASSELL'S MAGAZINE. Monthly, 6d.
LITTLE FOLKS. Monthly, 6d.
THE PENNY MAGAZINE. Weekly,

id. ; Monthly, 6d.
CASSELL'S SATURDAY JOURNAL.

Weekly, id.; Monthly, 6d.
MEN AND WOMEN. Edited by

GEO. R. SIMS. Weekly, id.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, Ludgate Hill, London.

THE MAGAZINE OF ART. New

Series. Monthly, is. net.
CHUMS. The Paper for Boys.

Weekly, id.; Monthly, 6d.
TINY TOTS. For the Very Little

Ones. Monthly, id.
WORK Weekly, id.; Monthly, 6d.
BUILDING WORLD. Weekly, id.;

Monthly, 6d.
THE GARDENER. Weekly, id.

io A Selection from Cassell &> Company's Publications.

Bibles and Religious Works.

Aids to Practical Religion. Selec-
tions from the Writings and Ad-
dresses of W. Boyd Carpenter,
Lord Bishop of Ripon. By the
Rev. J. H. BURN, B.D., F.R.S.E.
35. 6d.

Atonement, The. By WILLIAM
CONNOR MAGEE, D.D., late
Archbishop of York. is.

Bible Biographies. Illus. is. 6d. each.
THE STORY OF MOSES AND JOSHUA. By

the Rev. J. Telford.
THE STORY OF THE JUDGES. By the Rev.

J. Wyclifie Gedge.
THE STORY OF SAMUEL AND SAUL. By the

Rev. D. C. Tovey.

THE STORY OF DAVID. By the Rev. J. Wild.
THE STORY OF JOSEPH. Its Lessons for

To-day. By the Rev. George Baintoa.

THE STORY OF JESUS. In Verse. By J. R.
Macduff, D.D.

Bible Commentary for English
Readers. Edited by Bishop ELLI-
COTT. With Contributions by
eminent Scholars and Divines :

NEW TESTAMENT. Popular Ectilion. Un-
abridged. Three Vols. 6s. each.

OLD TESTAMENT. Pofu.ar Edition. Un-
abridged. Five Vols. 6s. each,

SPECIAL POCKET EDITIONS. 25. each.

Bible Dictionary, CasselTs Concise.
By the Rev. ROBERT HUNTER,
LL.D. Illustrated. Cheap hdition.
35. 6d.

Bible Student in the British Museum,
The. By the Rev. J. G. KITCHIN,
M.A. New and Revised Edition.
is. 4d.

Child's Bible, The. With 100 Illus-
trations and Coloured Plates. New
Edition. IDS. 6d.

Child Wonderful, The. A Series of
9 Pictures in colours by W. S.
STAGEY, illustrating incidents in
the Life of Christ. 2s. 6d.

Church of England, The. A History
for the People. By the Very Rev.
H. D. M. SPENCE, D.D., Dean of
Gloucester. Illustrated. Complete
in Four Vols. 6s. each.

Church Reform in Spain and Portu-
gal. By the Rev. H. E. NOYES,
D.D. Illustrated, zs. 6d.

Dore" Bible. With 200 Full-page
Illustrations by GUSTAVE DORE.
Popular Edition. 153.

Early Christianity and Paganism.
By the Very Rev. H. D. SPENCE,
D.D. Illustrated. i8s. net.

Early Days of Christianity, The.

By the Very Rev. Dean FARRAR,
D.D., F.R.S. Library Edition.
Two Vols., 245. ; morocco, ^2 25.
Popular Edition. Complete in
One Volume. Cloth, gilt edges,
75. 6d. Cheap Edition. Cloth gilt,
33. 6d. ; paste grain, 53. net.

Family Prayer-Book, The. Edited
by the Rev. Canon GARBH.TT,
M.A., and Rev. S. MARTIN. With
Full-page Illustrations. 73. 6d.

Gleanings after Harvest Studies
and Sketches by the Rev. JOHN R.
VERNON, M.A. Illustrated. Cheap
Edition. 35. 6d.

" Graven in the Rock." By the Rev.
.Dr. SAMUEL KINNS, F.R.A.S.
Illustrated. Library Edition. Two
Vols. 155.

" Heart Chords." A Series of Works
by Eminent Divines, is. each.

MY COMFORT IN SORROW. By Hugh Mac-
miUan, D.D.

MY BIBLE. By the Right Rev. W. Bovd

Carpenter, Bishop of Ripon;
MY FATHER. By the Right Rev. Ashton

Oxenden, late Bishop of Montreal.
MY WORK FOR GOD. By the Right Rev

Bishop Cotterill.
MY EMOTIONAL LIFE. By the Rev Preh

Chadwick. D.D.

MY GROWTH IN DIVINE LIFE. Bv the Rev

Preb. Reynolds, M.A.

MY SOUL. By the Rev. P. B. Power, M.A.
MY HEREAFTER. By the Very Rev. Dean

Bickersteth.
MY AID TO THE DIVINE LIFE. By the Very

Rev. Dean Boyle.
MY SOURCES OF STRENGTH. By the Rev

E. E. Jenkins. M.A.
MY WALK WITH GOD. By the Very Rev.

Dean Montgomery.

A Selection from Cassell & Company's Publications. 1 1

Holy Land and the Bible. A Book
of Scripture Illustrations gathered
in Palestine. By the Rev. CUN-
NINGHAM GEIKIE, D. D. " Quiver"
Edition. Abridged by the Author.
With 8 Full-page Illustrations.
2s. 6d. net. Cheap Edition. 73. 6d.
Superior Edition. With 24 Plates.
Cloth gilt, gilt edges, IDS. 6d.

Life of Christ, The. By the Very
Rev. Dean FARRAR. Cheap
Edition. With 16 Full-page Plates.
33. 6d. ; paste grain, 55. net.
Popular Edition. With 16 Full-
page Plates. 73. 6d. Illustrated
Quarto Edition. Cloth gilt, gilt
edges, 75. 6d. Original Illustrated
Edition, 2 is.

Life of Lives, The : Further Studies
in the Life of Christ By Dean
FARRAR. 155. Popular Edition,
75. 6d.

Life and Work of the Redeemer.
Illustrated. " Quiver" Edition.
With 8 Full-page Illustrations.
2S. 6d. net.

Matin and Vesper Bells. Earlier
and Later Collected Poems.
(Chiefly Sacred). By J. R. MAC-
DUFF, D.D. Two Vols. 75. 6d.
the set.

Methodism, Side Lights on the
Conflicts of. During the Second
Quarter of the Nineteenth Century,
1827-1852. From the Notes of the
late Rev. JOSEPH FOWLER of the
Debates of the Wesleyan Con-
ference. Cloth, 8s. Popular Edi-
tion. Unabridged. Cloth, 35. 6d.

Miracles. By the Rev. BROWNLOW
MAITLAND, M.A. is.

Moses and Geology; or, The Har-
mony of the Bible with Science.
By the Rev. SAMUEL KINNS,
Ph. D..F.R.A.S. Illustrated. ios.6d.
net.

Pilgrim's Progress, The. By JOHN
BuNYAN. Superior Edition. With
Notes by the Rev. ROBERT
MAGUIRE, M.A. , and containing
numerous Illustrations by H. C.
SELOUS and M. PAOLO PRIOLO.
3 s. 6d.

Plain Introductions to the Books
of the Old Testament. Edited by
Bishop ELLICOTT. 33. 6d.

Plain Introductions to the Books
of the New Testament. Edited
by Bishop ELLICOTT. 33. 6d.

Protestantism, The History of.
By the Rev. J. A. WYLIE, LL.D.
Containing upwards of 600 Orig-
inal Illustrations. Cheap Edition,
Three Vols. 55. each.

Quiver Yearly Volume, The. With
about 900 Original Illustrations.
73. 6d.

St. Paul, The Life and Work of.
By the Very Rev. Dean FARRAR.
Cheap Edition. With 16 Full-page
Plates, 33. 6d. ; paste grain, 53.
net. ; Popular Edition, 73. 6d. ;
Illustrated \to Edition, 73. 6d. ;
Original Illustrated Edition, 2. 23.

' Six Hundred Years " ; or, His-
torical Sketches of Eminent Men
and Women who have more or less
come into contact with the Abbey
and Church of Holy Trinity,
Minories, from 1293 to 1893. With
65 Illustrations. By the Vicar, the
Rev. Dr. SAMUEL KINNS. IDS. 6d.
net.

" Sunday," Its Origin, History, and
Present Obligation. By the Ven.
Archdeacon HESSEY, D.C.L, Fifth

Edition. 73. 6d.

12 A Selection from Cassell 6 Company's Publications.

Educational Works and Students' Manuals.

JEsop's Fables. In words of one
syllable. With 4 Coloured Plates
and numerous Illustrations. 6d.

Alphabet, Cassell's Pictorial, as.
and as. 6d.

Architectural Drawing. R. PHEN
SPIERS. With 26 Plates. New
Edition. 73. 6d. net.

Atlas, Cassell's Popular. Contain-
ing 24 Coloured Maps. is. 6d.

Blackboard Drawing. By W. E.
SPARKES. Illustrated. 35. 6d.

Brushwork Series, Cassell's.
Series I. WILD FLOWERS. Series
II. PICTURES WANTING WORDS.
Series III. ENTERTAINING PIC-
TURES. 3d. per Set, each contain-
ing 12 Sheets. Each Sheet includes
a Set of Six Water Colours.

Book - keeping. By THEODORE
JONES. For Schools, as. ; clothes.
For the Million, as.; cloth, 35.
Books for Jones's System, as.

Chemistry, The Public School. By
J. H. ANDERSON, M.A. as. 6d.

Dulce Domum. Rhymes and Songs
lor Children. Edited by JOHN
FARMER. 53.

England, A History of. By H. O.
ARNOLD - FORSTER, M.A. Illus-
trated. 55.

Euclid, Cassell's. Edited by Prof.
WALLACE, M.A. is.

"Eyes and No Eyes" Series (Cas-
sell's). By ARABELLA BUCKLEY.
With Coloured Plates and other
Illustrations. Six Books. 4d. and
6d. each. Complete Volume, 35. 6d.

Founders of the Empire. By
PHILIP GIBBS. Illustrated, is. 8d. ;
cloth, -2S. 6d.

French, Cassell' s Lessons in. Cheap
Edition. In Two Parts. Cloth,
is. 6d. each. Complete in One
Vol., as. 6d. Key, is. 6d.

French-English and English-French
Dictionary. 1,150 pages. Cloth or
buckram, 35. 6d. ; half-morocco, 53.

French-English and English-French
Dictionary, Cassell's New. Edited
bv JAMES BOIELLE, B.A. ys. 6d.

Gaudeamus. Songs for Colleges and
Schools. Edited by JOHN FARMER.
55. Words only, paper covers, 6d.;
cloth, gd.

Geography : A Practical Method of
Teaching. Book 1., England and
Wales, in Two Parts, 6d. each.
Book II., Europe. By J. H. OVER-
TON, F.G.S. 6d. Tracing Book,
containing zz leaves, ad.

German Dictionary, Cassell's. (Ger-
man-English, English - German.)
Cheap Edition. Cloth, 33. 6d. ; half-
morocco, 53.

Greek Heroes. New Supplementary
Reader. With 4 Coloured Plates
and numerous Illustrations. 6d.

Hand and Eye Training. By G.
RICKS, B.Sc. Two Vols., with 16
Coloured Plates in each. 6s. each.

Hand and Eye Training. By GEORGE
RICKS, B.Sc., and Jos. VAUGHAN.
Illustrated. Vol. I., Cardboard
Work, as. Vol. II., Colour Work
and Design, 33.

Historical Cartoons, Cassell's Col-
oured. Size 45 in. x 35 in. as. each.
Mounted on Canvas and varnished,
with Rollers, 53. each.

In Danger's Hour ; or, Stout Hearts
and Stirring Deeds. A Book of
Adventures for School and Home.
With Coloured Plates and other
Illustrations. Cloth, is.8d. ; bevelled
boards, as. 6d.

King Solomon's Mines. Abridged
Edition, for Schools, is. 3d.

Latin -English and English - Latin
Dictionary. 35. 6d. and 53.

Latin Primer, The First By Prof.

POSTGATE. IS.

Latin Primer, The New. By Prof.
J. P. POSTGATE. Crown 8vo. a=. 6d.

Latin Prose for Lower Forms. By
M. A. BAYFIELD, M.A. as. 6d.

Laws of Every-day Life. By H. O.
ARNOLD-FORSTER, M.A. is. 6d.

Magna Carta. A Facsimile of the
Original Document, mounted on
cardboard, together with a Trans-
lation, is. 6d.

Maryborough Books : Arithmetic
Examples, Revised, 33. French Ex-
ercises, 35. 6d. French Grammar,
23. 6d. German Grammar, 35. 6d.

Mechanics and Machine Design,
Numerical Examples in Practical.
By R. G. ELAINE, M.E. Revised
and Enlarged. Illustrated, as. 6d.

A Selection from Cassell & Company's Publicati ms. 1 3

Mechanics, Applied. By J. PERRY,
M. E. , D.Sc. , &c. Illustrated. 73. 6d.

Mechanics, Cassell's Cyclopaedia of.
Edited by P. N. HASLUCK. Series
I., II., and III. 75. 6d. each.
(Each Series is complete in itself. )

Metric Charts, Cassell's Approved.
Two Coloured Sheets, 42 in. by
22*4 in., illustrating by Designs
and Explanations the Metric Sys-
tem, is. each. Mounted with
Rollers, 35. each. The two in one
with Rollers, 55. each.

Models and Common Objects, How
to Draw from. By W. E. SPARKES.
Illustrated. 35.

Models, Common Objects, and Casts
of Ornament, How to Shade from.
By W. E. SPARKES. With 25
Plates by the Author. 35.

Object Lessons from Nature. By
Prof. L. C. Mi ALL, F.L.S. Fully
Illustrated. New and Enlarged
Edition. Two Vols., is. 6d. each.

Physiology for Schools. By A. T.
SCHOFIELD, M.D., &c. Illustrated.
Cloth, is. 9<1. ; Three Parts, paper,
5d. each ; or cloth limp, 6d. each.

Poetry for Children, Cassell's. 6
Books, id. each ; in One Vol., 6d.

Popular Educator, Cassell's. With
Coloured Plates and Maps, and
other Illustrations. 8 Vols., 55. each.

Reader, The Citizen. By H. O.
ARNOLD - FORSTER, M.A. Illus-
trated, is. 6d. Also a Scottish
Edition, cloth, is. 6d.

Reader, The Temperance. By J.
DENNIS HIRD. is. or is. 6d.

Readers, Cassell's "Belle Sauvage."
An entirely New Series. Fully
Illustrated. Strongly bound in cloth.
(List on application.)

Readers, Cassell's Classical, for
School and Home. Illustrated.
Vol. I. (for young children), is. 8d. ;
Vol. II. (boys and girls), as. 6d.

Readers, Cassell's "Higher Class."
(List on application.)

Readers, Cassell's Readable. Illus-
trated. (List on application.)

Readers, Cassell's Union Jack
Series. With Coloured Plates and
numerous Illustrations. 6 Books.
From 8d. each.

Readers for Infant Schools, Col-
oured. Three Books. 4d. each.

Readers, Geographical, Cassell's
New. Illustrated. (List on appli-
cation).

Readers, The "Modern School."
Illustrated. (List on application. )

Readers, The "Modern School"
Geographical (Listonapplication.)

Reckoning, Howard's Art of. By C.
FRUSHER HOWARD. Paper covers,
is. ; cloth, as. New Edition. 53.

Round the Empire. By G. R.
PARKIN. Fully Illustrated, is. 6d.

R. H. S. Curves. By Prof. R. H.
SMITH. A Set of 23 Scaled Tem-
plates, with Pamphlet, IDS. 6d.

Scholar's Companion to "Things
New and Old." Five Books. 32
pages, extra crown 8vo. 2d. each.

Shakspere's Plays for School Use.
7 Books. Illustrated. 6d. each.

Spelling, A Complete Manual of.
ByJ. D. MORELL, LL.D. Cloth,
is. Cheap Edition, 6d.

Spending and Saving : A Primer of
Thrift By ALFRED PINHORN. is.

Technical Educator, Cassell's. With
Coloured Plates and Engravings.
Complete in Six Volumes. 35. 6d.
each.

Technical Manuals, Cassell's. Illus-
trated throughout. Sixteen Books,
from 25. to 43. 6d. (List on appli-
cation.")

Technology, Manuals of. Edited by
Prof. AYRTON, F.R.S., and RICH-
ARD WORMF.LL, D.Sc., M.A.
Illustrated throughout. Seven Books
from 35. 6d. to 53. each. (List on
application. )

Things New and Old; or, Stories
from English History. By H. O.
ARNOLD - FORSTER, M.A. Illus-
trated. 7 Books from gd. to is. 8d.

Things New and Old, Scholar's Com-
panion to. 5 Books, zd. each.

This World of Ours. By H. O.
ARNOLD- FORSTER, M.A. Illus-
trated. Cheap Edition. 2S. 6d.

Troubadour, The. Selections from
English Verse. Edited and Anno-
tated by PHILIP GIBBS, is. 6d.

"Wild Flowers" Sheets, Cassell's.
12 Sheets, each containing 10 ex-
amples of familiar wild flowers,
beautifully reproduced in colours
and varnished, is. 6d. each.

CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, Ludgate Hill, London.

14 A Selection from Cassell 6- Company's Publications.

Books for the Little Ones.

A Sunday Story Book. 35. 6d.
320 pages of Simple Stories, alter-
nating with Pictures.

Animal Land for Little People. By
S. H. HAMER. Illustrated, is. 6d.

Beneath the Banner. Being Narra-
tives of Noble Lives and Brave
Deeds. By F. J. CROSS. Illus-
trated. Limp cloth, is. ; cloth
gilt, as.

Birds, Beasts and Fishes. By S. H.
HAMER. With Four Coloured
Plates and numerous Illustrations,
is. 6d.

Bo-Peep. A Book for the Little Ones.
With Original Stories and Verses.
Illustrated with Full-page Coloured
Plates, and numerous Pictures in
Colour. Yearly Volume. Picture
boards, as. 6d. ; cloth, 33. 6d.

Good Morning ! Good Night ! By
F. J. CROSS. Illustrated. Limp
cloth, is. ; or cloth boards, gilt
lettered, 2s.

Heroes of Every-day Life. By LAURA
LANE. Illustrated. 23. 6d.

"Little Folks" Half- Yearly Volume.
Containing 480 pages, with Six
Full-page Coloured Plates, and
numerous other Pictures printed in
Colour. Picture boards, 33. 6d.
Cloth gilt, gilt edges, 53. each.

"Little Folks" Plays. Each con-
taining 2 Coloured Plates and
numerous Illustrations. 6d. net
each :
CINDERELLA. By Miranda Hill.

RUMPELSTILTZKIN AND DUMMLING. Two

Plays. By Miranda Hill.
How TO GET UP A CHILDREN'S PLAY.

By Maggie Browne.

Little Folks" Song Book. With
Four Coloured Plates. 33. 6d.

Little Folks' Sunday Book. By
CHRISTIAN REDFORD. Illustrated.

23.

Little Mother Bunch. By Mrs.
MOLESWORTH. Illustrated, as. 6d.

Magic at Home. By Prof. HOFF-
MAN. Illustrated. Cloth gilt,
35. 6d.

Master Charlie. By C. S. HARRI-
SON and S. H. HAMER. Illus-
trated. Coloured boards, is. 6d.

Micky Magee's Menagerie ; or,
Strange Animals and their
Doings. By S. H. HAMER. With
Eight Coloured Plates and other
Illustrations by HARRY B. NEIL-
SON, is. 6d.

Notable Shipwrecks. Revised and
Enlarged Edition, is.

Peter Piper's Peep show. By S. H.
HAMER. With Illustrations by H.
B. NEILSON and LEWIS BAUMER.
is. 6d.

Pleasant Work for Busy Fingers.
By MAGGIE BROWNE. Illustrated,
as. 6d.

Quackles, Junior : Being the Extra-
ordinary Adventures of a Duckling.
With Four Coloured Plates and
other Illustrations by HARRY
ROUNTREE. Written by S. H.
HAMER. is. 6d.

The Foolish Fox, and Other Tales
in Prose and Verse. Edited by
S. H. HAMER. With Four
Coloured Plates and numerous
Illustrations, is. 6d.

The Ten Travellers. By S. H.
HAMER. With Four Coloured
Plates and numerous Illustrations
by HARRY B. NEILSON. is. 6d.

The Jungle School ; or, Dr. Jibber-
Jabber Burchall's Academy. By
S. H. HAMER. With Illustrations
by H. B. NEILSON. is. 6d.

The New "Little Folks" Painting
Book. Illustrated, is.

The Old Fairy Tales. With
Original Illustrations. Clotb. is.

" Tiny Tots " Annual Volume.
Boards, is. 4d. Cloth, is. 6d.

Topsy Turvy Tales. By S. H.
HAMER. With Illustrations by
HARRY B. NEILSON. is. 6d.

Two Old Ladies, Two Foolish Fairies,
and a Tom Cat. The Surprising
Adventures of Tuppy and Tue. A
New Fairy Story. By MAGGIE
BROWNE. With Four Coloured
Plates and other Illustrations.
33. 6d.

Whys and Other Whys ; or, Curious
Creatures and Their Tales. By
S. H. HAMER and HARRY B.
NEILSON. Paper boards, zs. 6d
Cloth, 33. 6d.

A Selection from Cassell 6 Company 's Publications. 1 5

CASSELL'S SHILLING STORY BOOKS.

Interesting Stories.
A PAIR OF PRIMROSES.
FRANK'S LIFE BATTLE.
ELLA'S GOLDEN YEAR.
IN THE DAYS OF KING GEORGE.
LITTLE QUEEN MAB.

SHILLING STOEY BOOKS BY EDWARD S. ELLIS. Illustrated.
ASTRAY IN THE FOREST. CAPTURED BY INDIANS.

All Illustrated, and containing

RHODA'S REWARD.
THE HEIRESS OF WYVERN COURT.
THEIR ROAD TO FORTUNE.
WON BY GENTLENESS.

BEAR CAVERN.
RED FEATHER. A Tale of
American Frontier.

the

THE BOY HUNTERS OF KENTUCKY.
THE DAUGHTER OF THE CHIEFTAIN.
WOLF EAR THE INDIAN.

CASSELL S EIGHTEENPENNY STORY BOOKS. Illustrated.

AIM AT A SURE END.
ALL IN A CASTLE FAIR.
BEAR AND FORBEAR.
BY LAND AND SEA.
CLARE LINTON'S FRIEND.
DOLLY'S GOLDEN SLIPPERS.

HER WILFUL WAY.
HONOUR is MY GUIDE.
ON BOARD THE ESMBRALDA.
THE BRAVEST OF THE BRAVE.
To SCHOOL AND AWAY.

CASSELL'S TWO-SHILLING STORY BOOKS. Illustrated.
ADAM HEPBURN'S Vow. THE LOST VESTAL.

A SELF-WILLED FAMILY.
DAISY'S DILEMMAS.
FAIRWAY ISLAND.
FLUFFY AND JACK.

THE MYSTERY OF MASTER MAX ;
AND THE SHRIMPS OF SHRIMPTON.
UNCLE SILVIO'S SECRET.
WRONG FROM THE FIRST.

TWO SHILLING STORY BOOKS BY EDWARD S. ELLIS. Illustrated. Cloth.

TAD.

LOST IN SAMOA.

BLAZING ARROW.

CHIEFTAIN AND SCOUT.

KLONDIKE NUGGETS.

NED IN THE BLOCK HOUSE.

NED IN THE WOODS.
NED ON THE RIVER.
THE PATH IN THE RAVINE.
THE RUBBER HUNTERS.
THE YOUNG RANCHERS.

HALF-CROWN STORY BOOKS BY EDWARD S. ELLIS. Illustrated. Cloth

A STRANGE CRAFT AND ITS WON-
DERFUL VOYAGES.

CAMP-FIRE AND WIGWAM.

COWMEN AND RUSTLERS.

DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI.

FOOTPRINTS IN THE FOREST.

IN RED INDIAN TRAILS.

IN THE DAYS OF THE PIONEERS.

IRON HEART, WAR CHIEF OF THE
IROQUOIS.

LOST IN THE WILDS.

PONTIAC, CHIEF OF THE OTTAWAS.

HALF-CROWN STORY BOOKS.

AN OLD BOY'S YARNS.
AT THE SOUTH POLE.
BY FIRE AND SWORD.
COST OF A MISTAKE.

RED JACKET: THE LAST OF THE

SENEGAS.

SCOUTS AND COMRADES.
SHOD WITH SILKNCE.
THE CAMP IN THE MOUNTAINS.
THE GREAT CATTLE TRAIL.
THE HUNTERS OF THE O/.ARK.
THE LAST WAR TRAIL.
THE LOST TRAIL.
THE PHANTOM OF THE RIVER.
Two Bovs IN WYOMING.
UNCROWNING A KING.

FAIRY TALES IN OTHER LANDS.
FREEDOM'S SWORD.
HEROES OF THE INDIAN EMPIRE.
LOST AMONG WHITE AFRICANS.

1 6 A Selection from Cassell <5^ Company's Publications.

HALF-CROWN STORY BOOKS (continued) :

A GIRL WITHOUT AMBITION.

LOST ON Du CORRIG.

MASTER OF THE STRONG H EARTS :

A STORY OF CUSTER'S LAST

RALLY.

MRS. PEDERSON'S NIECE.
PICTURES OF SCHOOL LIFE AND

BOYHOOD.

ROGUES OF THE FIERY CROSS.
SISTERS THREE.
STRONG TO SUFFER.
THE QUEEN'S SCARLET.

THE WHITE HOUSE AT INCH
Gow.

THROUGH TRIAL TO TRIUMPH.

TOLD OUT OF SCHOOL.

TOM AND SOME OTHER GIRLS.

To PUNISH THE CZAR.

To THE DEATH.

WANTED A KING; OR, How MERLE
SET THE NURSERY RHYMES TO
RIGHTS.

WITH REDSKINS ON THE WAR-
PATH.

BOOKS FOR BOYS AND GIRLS. Fully Illustrated.

GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. With up-
wards of 100 Illustrations from
New Plates. Fine Art Edition,
75. 6d.

CASSELL'S ROBINSON CRUSOE.
With loo Illustrations. Cloth,
35. 6d. ; gilt edges, 55.

CASSELL'S Swiss FAMILY ROBIN-
SON. Illustrated. Cloth, 35. 6d. ;
gilt edges, 55.

STRANGE ADVENTURES IN DICKY-
BIRD LAND. Stories told by Mother
Birds to amuse their Chicks,
and overheard by R. KEARTON,
F.Z.S. With Illustrations from
Photographs taken direct from
Nature by C. KEARTON. Cloth,
35. 6d. ; cloth gilt, gilt edges, 53.

THREE AND SIXPENNY STORY BOOKS FOR GIRLS. Illustrated.

A SWEET GIRL GRADUATE. ^

A WORLD OF GIRLS: THE STORY OF A SCHOOL.

BASHFUL FIFTEEN.

BEYOND THE BLUE MOUNTAINS.

MERRY GIRLS OF ENGLAND.

POLLY: A NEW-FASHIONED GIRL.

RED ROSE AND TIGER LILY.

THE PALACE BEAUTIFUL.

THE REBELLION OF LIL CARRINGTON.

BOUND BY A SPELL. By the Hon. Mrs. Greene.

FIVE STARS IN A LITTLE POOL. By Edith Carrington.

THE KING'S COMMAND: A STORY FOR GIRLS. By Maggie Symington.

THREE AND SIXPENNY STORY BOOKS FOR BOYS. Illustrated. Cloth gilt.

With 8 Coloured
Plates in each.

By L. T. MEADE.

" FOLLOW MY LEADER." By Tal-

bot Baines Reed.
FOR FORTUNE AND GLORY : A

STORY OF THE SOUDAN WAR.

By Lewis Hough.
FOR GLORY AND RENOWN. By

D, H. Parry.
THE CAPTURE OF THE "Es-

TRELLA": A TALE OF THE

SLAVE TRADE. By Commander

Claud Harding, R.N.

THE RED TERROR : A STORY OF THE
PARIS COMMUNE. By Edward King.

THE THREE HOMES. By the Very
Rev. Dean Farrar.

UNDER BAYARD'S BANNER. By
Henry Frith.

UNDER THE GREAT BEAR. By

Kirk Munroe.
WITH CLAYMORE AND BAYONET.

By Colonel Percy Groves.

CASSELL & COMPANY'S COMPLETE CATALOGUE WILL BE SENT POST FREE ON APPLICATION TO
CASSELL & COMPANY, LIMITED, La Belle Sauvage, Ludgate Hill, Lotuion.

409

UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO LIBRARY